Hello to the Night
by Nagia
Summary: When Beast Boy convinced Raven to use her powers to turn Titan Tower into a haunted house, she had misgivings. But now the REAL Halloween is here, and things are going worse than she thought...
1. Prologue

**Hello to the Night**

**Prologue**

**1**

_August 14th_

Hm.

Raven would have sworn that she'd put her book back on the shelf, right where it belonged. Except it wasn't there. If Raven hadn't known better, she would have accused someone of moving it.

But _nobody_ entered her room. Nobody.

She whirled around when she heard a few soft taps on the door. Her cloak swept out behind her as she moved rapidly towards the door. The movement was a cross between gliding and storming.

The door hissed open, revealing the green-skinned face of Beast Boy.

"Yes?" She raised an eyebrow and kept her tone cold, knowing that Beast Boy would lose his nerve if given enough reason to think he should.

"Uh, Raven, hiya… I was wondering…" He paused, looking guilty. "I was wondering… if…" he paused, then delivered the last portion of his question in a rush. "If you'd thought any more about that suggestion I made and what your answer is."

"My answer stands as is," Raven replied. The door hissed closed, and she turned her back on it.

The book was on the floor by her bed.

_August 29th_

Sighing with exhaustion and strangely exhilarated from the adrenaline, Raven slowly drifted to the ground, landing gracefully. The fight had taken a lot out of her, little as she wanted to admit it.

Beast Boy returned to his humanoid form. "Please?"

"No." And with that, she swept into the darkness, flying back to Titan Tower after Starfire.

_August 30th_

Black shells covered the various and sundry items the training course threw at her, and with a simple thought, the shadowy shells destroyed their contents. She indicated to the computer to increase the difficulty level, and soon found herself in the midst of a storm of hard, pointy… things.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" Raven cried, and the shells encased the hard pointy things, destroying them.

She increased the difficulty level once more, and proceeded to exercise her talents to a fuller extent, not only using the black energy to destroy, but also using telekinesis.

After two hours of training, she surrendered to the headache and turned to go.

A hand closed around her wrist. Robin's hand.

She almost thought he'd teleported, he'd arrived he behind her so quickly.

"Raven?" Robin asked. "Beast Boy told me his idea."

"And?" She asked.

"I think it's a good one. But don't worry, if you _really_ don't want to go along, I won't order you to." He paused. "But wouldn't it be nice for once, to use our powers for something that, instead of just saving lives, does good in a different way?"

"It's _my_ powers you want to use."

"No, it would be all of us. We can all do pretty scary things, Raven. And the city isn't exactly happy with us… Especially with you."

"I know what you're getting at."

"The church groups would stop clamoring about you, if they could trivialize your power. Just think about it, Raven. Instead of people constantly snipping at you, judging you, at least a few of them would thank you for your work on the haunted house." He looked her in the eyes, and the effect of staring into blank, white slits was disconcerting. "I won't force you." Robin chuckled. "Scratch that. I _can't_ force you. But I _can_ ask."

**2**

_September 2nd_

Robin sat in the living room, listening to music with his CD player and earphones while Cyborg and Beast Boy wiped each other out on the Game Station.

Raven leaned over the couch, slipped an earphone out of his left hear, and whispered, "You win."

With that, she swept out of the room.

...

...

Here comes the night

The bedroom in shadows

Candlelights

I don't know where it's coming from

But I, I keep moving on

Till the darkest thought makes me want to try these wings

-- Lou Gramm, _Lost in the Shadows_


	2. Chapter One

**Hello to the Night**

**Chapter One**

**1**

_September 24th_

"Well," Cyborg said as he tapped a few keys on the computer. "Since we're using the Tower as the haunted house, we'd have to be able to… cancel it, right? Can't live like that."

"Right," Robin agreed.

"So, I wrote a program that will make all our haunted effects go away after a certain hour."

"That hour being?"

"Two in the morning."

"Great, so we're entertaining guests until two in the morning," Raven commented dryly. "Maybe this isn't such a good idea."

"Too late, Raven," Robin told her. "I already got permission for civilians to approach the Tower. We're locked in, now."

And so the work began. First, they wallpapered the entire tower (except for the evidence room and the Titans' bedrooms, which everybody wanted to keep private) in a type of wallpaper that would peel off if you tugged hard enough. Then, they painted that wallpaper black.

After that, the physical construction began. A few of the rooms in the Tower gained something mechanical to add to the effect.

The training room got a "weight-machine monster," the computer lab received a robotic mannequin that appeared to drop from the ceiling and "attack" visitors and the kitchen became the proud owner of the first ever evil toaster.

But Cyborg and Beast Boy were particularly proud of the living room. Together, they had managed to rig the couch so that it would appear to attack the haunted house's patrons.

Raven had to admit that they were good tricks.

Many of the rooms would be populated only by Raven's illusory horrors, inspired by the things she had accidentally done after watching _Wicked Scary_. Of course, she wouldn't use the _Wicked Scary_ trademark monster. No, she had something else up her sleeve.

As if Raven's too-real illusions weren't enough, the Titans themselves would all be present in the haunted Tower. Beast Boy would morph into a T-Rex and Cyborg would emerge from the shadows and pretend to shoot his sonic canon at the haunted house's patrons. Robin would haunt them like a ghost, appearing and disappearing at random. Starfire would use her powers to cast an eerie glow, and throw green bolts of energy. Those bolts would, of course, fizzle out before touching anyone.

If all went well.

"We launch at sunset on October 4th," Robin said, turning to face them. "Let's have fun, okay? Test run is on September 30th."

.

.

.

_September 30th, __9:02 PM_

The Teen Titans assembled in the evidence room. Robin's disembodied voice gave them a valuable piece of information he'd held back.

"Hey!" Beast Boy shouted, even as Raven settled into lotus position— three feet in the air— to conjure the illusions. "You never said we were scaring the Justice League!"

Robin laughed maniacally as he emerged from the shadows silently enough to make the Dark Knight proud. "Always wanted to do that," he chuckled. "Sorry, BB. The JLA didn't want you all to know."

"And why not?" Raven asked.

"They think it'll be scarier if we're desperate. Let's just take the scary up a notch… or seventeen." He looked around at the assembled. "Now, let's get this show on the road!"

.

.

.

The JLA entered Titan Tower. The walls were black and spattered with a dark substance Batman only needed to glance at to identify as blood.

He and Superman exchanged glances, but continued moving.

"Robin? Raven?" Flash called. "Cyborg? Beast Boy?"

"Starfire?" Wonder Woman was the one who called out this time.

The Tower did not answer.

The members of the Justice League shrugged to each other.

Batman noted the strange signs written in blood on the inside of the elevator, and Superman looked slightly troubled. "They've got the walls covered in something like lead," he whispered. "I can't see anything with my X-ray vision."

"Smart kids," Flash laughed.

The elevator stopped for no reason, and the doors opened.

So they stepped out, into a room just as black as all the other rooms they'd seen. A small, still figure lay on the floor in a pool of dark liquid.

Closer examination revealed the figure to be Raven's corpse. Something had ripped open her stomach, seemingly from the inside, and the back of her head appeared smashed in... Or out.

Someone had scrawled the words "Azarath Metrion Zinthos" on her forehead— in her own blood.

Wonder Woman gasped, Superman looked revolted while Flash and Aquaman looked faintly green.

Batman felt hollow.

Something was wrong with this picture. This was a haunted house… this wasn't Raven.

Was it?

...

...

Say hello to the night

Lost in the shadows

Say hello to the night

Lost in the loneliness

Say hello to the night

Lost in the shadows

No one knows

-- Lou Gramm, _Lost in the Shadows_


	3. Chapter Two

((If you don't know what a blow-up doll is [or what type of blow-up doll to which I refer], you probably won't think parts of this are funny. But really, what's a good horror story without moments of sexual suggestiveness? And funny?))

**Hello to the Night**

**Chapter Two**

**1**

_September 30th, __9:05 PM_

The body on the floor wasn't Raven.

Was it?

On a hunch, Batman leaned down, snipped small chunk of Raven's purple hair and inserted it into one of the gadgets he never left the Batcave without.

The tiny monitor flashed the message: _Substance analyzed. Results: substance is finely shredded plastic fiber, containing red dye._

Batman then snipped a piece of Raven's skin. A hissing sound filled the room, and he turned around automatically. Seeing nothing, he removed the fiber and inserted the skin. If he was right…

The monitor flashed, _Substance analyzed. Results: substance is thin plastic, of a rubbery type frequently used in the making of inflatable toys._

He gave a half-smile. "That's not Raven, but it's a good trick. A _very_ good trick."

"If that's not Raven," Flash asked, "then what is it?"

"It's a redheaded inflatable doll."

They blinked.

"And the blood is probably chocolate syrup."

"Wait, if that's a redheaded inflatable doll, then how can it have so many holes in it?" Aquaman asked.

Wonder Woman stared. "It's an illusion… a hologram, or something."

Flash mused, a slight smile lingering on his lips. "Chocolate syrup, huh? Only one way to find out, without over-using that gadget of yours." And with that, Flash bent, slid a finger through the dark substance, and licked it. "Yep. Chocolate syrup."

Superman laughed. "I can't believe we were fooled by something so simple as a blow-up doll and a hologram. For a minute, I thought that was really Raven's body."

"I did too." Aquaman agreed.

The elevator doors slid open again.

"It isn't really a blow-up doll, is it?" Superman asked as they stepped back inside. "It's just some sort of inflatable mannequin, right? Because if it isn't, you and Robin have something to talk about. Considering that he's only seventeen and all."

Batman paused and glared up at the Man of Steel.

The elevator stopped on another floor and the Justice League stepped into the computer room. The elevator doors closed behind them.

Of course.

Something on the ceiling began to move, and Superman sidestepped only just in time to avoid a shadowy figure with a long, spiky object. The figure began to move towards Wonder Woman. She backed away, and Flash grabbed onto it from the side.

"It's just a mannequin!" Flash laughed. "Wonder Woman, a mannequin wants to KILL you! Ah-wooooh!" He laughed more, making various 'spooky' sounds.

Wonder Woman turned, gritting her teeth. Her hand collided with Flash's cheek forcefully enough to whip his head to the side.

Aquaman's jaw dropped. Batman wasn't sure if Aquaman found Flash's rather dumb joke startling, or if it was Wonder Woman's vehement response.

"Geez, Wonder Woman. Sorry," Flash said. "You know I didn't mean it like that. You didn't _have_ to slap me, you know."

"I… I know!" Wonder Woman gasped, wide-eyed. "But I… I didn't mean to do that!"

"What do you mean, 'you didn't mean to do that'? Seemed pretty intentional to me." Flash released the mannequin long enough to rub his cheek.

The mannequin, which had stilled in Flash's grasp, reanimated. It went straight for Wonder Woman again.

This time, she used the Lasso of Truth on it, and the mannequin finally powered down.

The Caped Crusader took out a flashlight and swept the beam of light across the room. The light revealed nothing else out of the ordinary.

The elevator doors opened, and they went back in.

"I meant," Wonder Woman told Flash in a low voice, "that I didn't mean to slap you."

The elevator stopped at another floor, and they stepped out.

**2**

Raven's lips quirked into the tiniest of smiles as the JLA entered the room the Titans had earmarked. The image of her corpse had disturbed them deeply. The mannequin in the computer room had startled them.

It was time to _scare_ them.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos," she whispered, concentrating on the images of fanged black birds with red eyes.

.

.

.

Batman turned around slowly, trying to see into every corner of the room. The room was empty… wasn't it?

No, it couldn't be. This was a haunted house. Haunted houses didn't just take you into empty rooms. That defeated the purpose.

A shadow moved.

Wonder Woman gasped and backed away, towards the elevator.

He, Superman, Flash, and Aquaman turned in her direction to see a peck of black birds with red eyes.

Batman could barely make them out.

The birds opened their beaks, revealing shiny, sharp teeth, unleashing a strange, breathy sound.

And then they sprang.

.

.

.

_Focus, Raven, focus._ She told herself. _Attack her, but do not touch her. Bring her here._

Her eyes snapped open.

.

.

.

The birds buried Wonder Woman in a writhing, shadowy mass of black and red.

And then, Wonder Woman was gone.

"My god!" Superman gasped.

Flash's eyes widened. "Freaking CRAP!"

Aquaman appeared to have been stunned speechless.

**3**

_October 1st, __2:00:00 AM___

The couch, which had been thumping and pounding, jumping and wrestling, and doing various impressive stunts (after eating Flash alive) suddenly slammed into the ground, assuming the standard couch position and becoming tame.

Batman and Superman stared, eyes wide and jaws agape, as the room changed. The blood effects vanished, the doors unlocked, and a table lamp turned on.

Down the hall, a door hissed open, and four sets of feet sounded on the floor, moving towards them.

Down the hall in the opposite direction, three sets of feet trooped towards them.

"Well?" Robin's voice asked. He glided smoothly into the room, Cyborg and Beast Boy behind him. Starfire floated beside him.

"Man, you should have seen your faces!" Flash laughed as he entered. "It was the greatest thing!"

"YOUR face when that tentacle monster dragged Aquaman off wasn't too shabby either!" Wonder Woman reminded him, entering behind him. "And I'll bet all of our faces were probably entertaining when those bird-things dragged me off."

"The not-rats in the basement were good," Aquaman laughed.

"So, it's a good haunted house?" Cyborg asked. "Did you like the Killer Couch?"

Batman turned to face him. "Yes and yes."

Laughing, Superman told Cyborg, "I _definitely_ liked the Killer Couch. But those fanged birds? And when Wonder Woman slapped Flash? _Priceless_."

Robin allowed a smile. "All courtesy of Raven."

"I'm glad you liked them," Raven informed them all in a monotone. With that, she stalked towards the corridor on the opposite end of the room. "And now I'm going to bed."

…

…

They're out of order in war

They're out of order in love

They need to feed, they both agree

The hawk and the dove

-- Eddie and the Tide, _Power Play_


	4. Chapter Three

**Hello to the Night**

**Chapter Three**

**1**

_October 5th, __2:00 AM___

Cyborg sighed in relief as the haunted house program powered down. He took the elevator with the six of the last fifteen people down to the entrance hall.

"Did you like it?" He queried. "Were you scared?"

"Yeah! The couch thing was REALLY cool!" A boy told him, pumping his fist in the air.

"Yeah, dude, the couch was wicked cool." Another boy, this one a teenager, agreed. "But I really like when Mom got dragged off down that corridor by that tentacle-thing!"

"I liked the black water in the elevator!" A teenaged girl said. "And then the doors open and it WHOOOSHES out! It's like a waterslide!"

"Yeah! Just like a water slide!" Chorused a woman who might have been in her thirties. "But the evil toaster in the kitchen! If I hadn't been so scared, I would have laughed myself into a fit! You ought to market those! I'd buy it as a gag gift any day!"

Cyborg laughed with them as the elevator stopped. Robin and a small family stepped on.

"Are we at occupancy yet?" Robin asked.

"Not unless somebody who weighs, like, seven hundred and forty pounds just stepped on. This elevator was built to accommodate two Beast Boys in tiger form."

"Which means it can accommodate sixteen hundred pounds, roughly?"

"Yep."

"Well, that aside," Robin turned to the other passengers. "Did you like it? How badly did it scare you?"

"I was REALLY scared," said the boy in the new family. "Especially when you came in out of nowhere. And Cyborg was really scary too!"

"When I saw Beast Boy as the T-Rex…" The new woman began.

"Yeah, Beast Boy as the T-Rex!" Said the first woman. "I screamed so loud they probably heard me in Gotham!"

"Starfire was cool!" The teenaged boy laughed. "But where was Raven?"

Cyborg grinned. "She was in charge of the freaky black stuff. If it was black and dragged somebody away, she probably made it."

"You know, last week, we had the JLA in here and they were scared too," Robin chuckled. "Especially when Raven made Wonder Woman disappear."

"Raven made Wonder Woman slap Flash, too. It was pretty funny."

.

.

.

_October 5th, __12:03 PM___

The Titans began to wake and head to the kitchen, with various groans and mumbles.

"I don't want to be awake!" Beast Boy yawned.

Cyborg and Starfire seconded that opinion, and even Robin seemed tired.

"Who'd have thought scaring people could take so much out of you?" The question was rhetorical.

"Ugh…" Raven told him. "Why did I _ever_ agree to this?"

"Tired?"

"I don't do tired. I don't do fear, and I don't do tired." It was a lie, and they all knew it. She had ceased to be some sort of inhuman emotionless thing and become someone who merely controlled their emotions to the point of almost not having them.

Well, her pain was none of their business. So she would just let them all think she was lying through her teeth on this one.

Even if she had the migraine of the century.

.

.

.

_October 10th, __1:34 PM___

"Ugh," she groaned. Her migraine had gotten steadily worse, and she had been inhaling steadily larger amounts of ibuprofen.

It. Wasn't. Working.

Robin looked over at her. "Tired? We could probably take the night off…"

"'Closed for technical difficulties' would probably cover it," Beast Boy agreed.

"I'm. Not. Tired." _My head just feels like somebody tried to break it open, my father is laughing at me in my head, and I think I'm losing my grip on my emotions._

.

.

.

_October 11, __4:32 PM_

Robin looked around. He'd only been awake for two hours, so maybe his head was still fuzzy… but was somebody missing?

He looked around, counted the other Titans. _I'm one… Beast Boy is two, the other Beast Boy is three— wait a minute, there's only ONE BB…whoa, I'm so tired, I'm seeing double… so Cyborg is three, and Starfire makes four._

His head paused for a minute. _Oh. Where's Raven? She'd be up by now, wouldn't she?_

He blinked. "Hey, has anybody seen Raven?"

"As I think of it, I have not," Starfire said, wide-eyed.

"Nope, not yet." Beast Boy called from the living room.

Cyborg echoed his friend's sentiments.

Robin stopped, thought, and weighed ideas versus consequences. After a moment, he decided. "I'm going to go see what's wrong with her."

The door to Raven's room should not have been such an ominous thing. It was a door. With "Raven" written on it. That was it.

So why did the thought of touching that door make him want to run back to Gotham with his figurative tail between his legs?

He gritted his teeth. No. He was the leader of the Titans. He was Robin. He had taken down Zucco on his own… when he was _nine years old_. He was a Romany gypsy. He was NOT AFRAID OF RAVEN.

His fingers tapped on the door.

Nothing happened.

Emboldened, his knocked on the door several times. "Raven? Raven, are you in there?"

No response. Not even a 'go away.'

His gaze rested on the keypad beside the door. If he went in her room, she'd kill him. If he woke her, she'd do it slowly.

Well, he'd only open the door. Just poke his head in and see if she was in there or not.

The door slid open under the override code, and he poked his head in.

Raven knelt in the corner, with her blankets over her head.

"Raven?" He asked, making absolute certain that his body was on the other side of the threshold. "Are you all right?"

The kneeling figure stood and glared at him. "I'm. Fine." She bit off each word, obviously angry.

"No, you're not. You can tell me what's wrong, you know."

"I'm fine."

"I know you're not tired. And I've noticed the massive amounts of ibuprofen missing from the infirmary."

"And?"

"Tell me… are you suffering from migraines?"

"And if I am?"

"I'm sure we can find a way to help. As it is, we're taking the night off."

"You shouldn't have to!"

"Face it, Raven. We're all exhausted. You're suffering from migraines, which may come from repeated use of your powers in a really, really complicated way. Beast Boy's head has a rash from where his head has bumped up against the ceiling so much, Cyborg can't recharge past 82 percent, and Starfire is complaining of problems in a place I can't pronounce. Kahl-glorb-pahoot-something-or-other."

"And what about you, Boy Wonder?"

"Let's just say my muscles ache and my throat hurts from doing that maniacal laugh all the time. And I couldn't wash the fake blood off my chin this morning. There's still a pink stain."

"So…"

"So we're taking the night off. At seven, I'm going to go post a sign on the lawn. How does 'Haunted Tower closed due to technical difficulties' sound?"

She smiled. "Sounds fine."

**2**

_October 12, __6:41 AM_

Cyborg's cheerful voice came from the kitchen. "Okay, we're going to have eggs, rolls, bacon—"

"—BACON?! I've BEEN bacon! I can't believe you're going to eat that!"

"Bacon, and sausage—"

"—I've been that TOO!"

"Would you quit? If you don't want it, you don't have to eat it!"

"But! But! But you're eating SOMETHING THAT I'VE BEEN!"

"Beast Boy," Robin's voice warned from the living room, "we understand that you're a vegetarian. You have excellent reasons. But _we_ _aren't vegetarians_. There is nothing you can do to change that fact. If Cyborg wants to eat bacon, that doesn't mean he wants to eat you."

"He just wants to eat bacon." Raven continued from the doorway to the living room.

"Friend Raven, you are awake!" Starfire smiled happily. "I must admit to being worried!"

Raven had to admit that the break had done her good. Her migraine hadn't gone, but it had definitely gotten better. She had a feeling that she could probably get rid of it with a normal dose of ibuprofen. "No need to worry about me."

_11:13 AM_

The training session ended, but Robin stopped her before she could leave.

"How are the migraines?" He asked, his hand on her wrist.

She twisted her wrist out of his grasp, but told him, "Much better."

"I'm glad. And not just glad to know that the haunted house can go on."

She raised an eyebrow.

"We've got other duties too. We've been pretty lucky as to crime rate so far, but this is Jump City… it's not going to be quiet forever."

**3**

_10:04 PM_

Robin was right, of course. Jump City was Jump City, and it had a high crime rate. Not as high as Gotham's, but still…

Jump City could never be 'quiet' for much more than a week.

A small gang, thinking that the Teen Titans wouldn't be able to perform their usual duties, what with the haunted house, had decided to rob the mayor's house.

If Raven could allow herself to laugh, she would have done so at blatant stupidity. Not having to worry about the Titans might have been a good reason for the criminals —MIGHT in another, dumber, universe— but what about the 'normal' law enforcement? How could anybody be so dumb as to rob the Mayor's house?

It stank, and the other Titans smelled it too.

"I don't like this," Robin sighed as he cuffed the leader of the gang. "They didn't have enough people for a venture like this, and they were just too dumb."

Starfire looked over at him, nodding. "So you think it is a… set-up, too?"

Cyborg called for the others. When they found him, he was pointing at the broken windows. "This wasn't a point of entry OR exit."

Robin's eyes narrowed. "How can you tell?"

"Because it wasn't smashed from either side."

"What are you talking about? The remaining glass is jagged!" Beast Boy liked his thumb. "And sharp, man."

Cyborg shrugged. "Maybe so, but it was cut, with a glass cutter, in a jagged pattern. Whoever did it knew their physics; they cut it just the way it would have fallen if somebody broke it. But they _cut _it…"

"…to give the appearance of using it as an entry or exit." Robin finished the sentence for the taller Titan.

"Plus, there isn't any blood or fabric on it. They would have left something if they'd used it, and they didn't."

Something clicked in Raven's mind. "There was nothing in the house that had been broken. Just that glass. Did they even go in at all, or did they just break that glass, grab that vase, and act like they were trying to escape when we got here?"

Beast Boy turned into a dog, and did a quick run through the halls from the front door to the bay windows. He returned less than a minute later. "The shortest one went in through the front door, grabbed that really, really expensive vase, and then ran back here."

"They _wanted_ to be caught." This came from the Boy Wonder, who was staring at the broken glass.

A police officer moved towards them. "Look, kids, the apprehension's been made, the mystery's been solved. Now scram before the Mayor files trespassing charges."

"Grateful, isn't he?" The wry comment left Raven's lips before she could stop herself.

The other Titans could only agree.

_10:11 PM_

They arrived back at Titan Tower to see someone sitting on what was practically their front lawn.

"Didn't you see the sign?" Cyborg called. "The haunted house is closed, due to city emergency."

"I know," the figure called back. "Somebody tried to rob the Mayor's house."

"Look, there's a law against civilians coming around here. They suspend the law on haunted house nights, but we've already told you that this isn't one. Unless you're a meta-human, I suggest you leave." Robin told the figure.

The figure stood. "I just wanted to tell you what I know about that robbery. I saw the deal being made."

The figure was a teenaged boy, a little younger than Robin.

"Deal?" Robin asked.

"Yeah. Some guy in a mask paid those guys to rob the Mayor's house and get caught by the Titans. He said he wouldn't let them go to jail."

Robin lifted the teen up by his shirt, "Tell me more."

"He said something about 'neglecting duties' and 'want him sharp'. I didn't catch anything else."

Robin set him down and sighed.

"Hey, aren't you going to at least thank me? Be polite?"

Robin whirled back to face him, a little angry. He extended his right hand. "I'm Robin, thanks for the help."

The teen accepted it. "Tim Drake." He paused, looked straight into Robin's hidden eyes, and inquired, "Have you been practicing on the trapeze much?"

…

…

Hear the loud alarum bells-

Brazen bells!

What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!

In the startled ear of night

How they scream out their affright!

Too much horrified to speak,

They can only shriek, shriek,

Out of tune,

— Edgar Allan Poe, _The Bells_

=====

Replies to reviews:

**DarkXeno****:** This is really a non-pairing fic. If (BIG IF) there IS going to be a pairing, it will be Robin/Raven, for reasons I will not disclose. Thank you very much for reviewing,

**Sulia**** Shincho**: Thank you very much. And you're partly right. We'll see on Halloween…

**Punk-God**: _The Lost Boys_ is a movie, not a band. But thanks for the compliments.

**CoolMoDee****:** Thank you very much; I'm glad you thought it was funny. And, fortunately, it wasn't a REAL blow-up doll. It was an inflatable mannequin that was manufactured to look gutted. You'll find out where they got it in the next chapter.

And to everyone else, or anybody I missed, thank you very much. Reviews let me know that I'm reaching and pleasing my audience, and therefore motivate me to keep going. A prologue and two and a half chapters in one day (yesterday). We'll see if I can't keep the fast-updates streak going…


	5. Chapter Four

**Hello to the Night**

**Chapter Four**

**1**

_October 12, __10:11 PM___

The teen accepted it. "Tim Drake." He paused, looked straight into Robin's hidden eyes, and inquired, "Have you been practicing on the trapeze much?"

Robin felt his face drain of blood. His mind kept repeating the thought, _This guy knows_.

"Why do you ask?" Robin had to force the words out of his mouth. He wanted to run and call Batman, tell him that someone knew his secret identity.

Tim shrugged. "Just wondering."

And with that, the teen turned and walked away.

"Was that a friend of yours, Robin?" Starfire cocked her head to one side, hovering a few inches from the ground.

But Robin could only meet Raven's wide, lavender eyes. She was as pale as he was.

"Uh, yeah," he told Starfire. "I… I need to go call somebody."

_11:57 PM_

Robin quietly placed the headset back in the cradle and stared at the telephone. The headset was an almost straight line and lay horizontal across the vertical cradle to form a T. The phone's base was a mound— the entire thing was a novelty phone, a replica of Titan Tower bought in one of the many gifts shops catering to tourists.

He had expected Batman to be angry. He had expected Batman to demand that he come home.

Batman had done the latter. He hadn't done the former… well, he hadn't done much of the former.

No, they'd spent half an hour racking their brains, trying to come up with a connection to Tim Drake.

They'd come up with few answers.

Tim _knew_. Tim had seen him, when he was in the circus.

_Have you been practicing on the trapeze much?_

It was the only connection that made any sense. He must have met some smart kid before a show one night, that kid being Tim Drake, and the boy had figured it out when he heard Robin's voice.

That _had_ to be it. Batman had even agreed.

The gypsy focused on unraveling the mystery of Tim Drake so much that he didn't notice the sound of the elevator door hissing open.

"Robin?" A voice sounded behind him.

He turned, startled, then identified the speaker as Raven. "Oh, it's you. What do you need?"

"That boy… Tim Drake."

_Have you been practicing on the trapeze much?_

"Yes?"

"Robin… he knows."

"I know." He told her. He ran a hand through his hair. "I know…"

"He knows you used to be in the circus. He probably knows your name." She paused. He noticed that her facial expression looked troubled, before she made it blank again. "How much will people be willing to pay for that?"

"A lot." He wasn't worried about himself. In the current situation, his name put him in no particular danger. If people wanted to know where to find him, they only had to look for the T-shaped tower.

But Batman… If Robin was Dick Grayson, the boy Bruce Wayne had adopted, then who could Batman be, unless Wayne was a _complete_ idiot?

_Have you been practicing on the trapeze much? _"What am I going to do?"

She sat down next to him. "What _can_ you do? You'll just have to wait and see."

"Thank you, Raven." He rubbed his temples. "This is crazy. I thought that the circus… I thought that everybody forgot about that kid."

Raven shrugged. "When I came to earth, I thought nobody could guess that I wasn't human."

He grinned weakly. "Shows how much we know, huh?"

_October 14, __12:47 AM_

Robin shadowed the newest group of visitors. Every now and then, he chuckled just barely loudly enough for them to hear.

The visitors looked over their shoulders, nervous. They stopped in one of Raven's rooms, as the Titans had come to call the rooms earmarked for Raven's illusions.

Robin watched one of the visitors gasp as fanged birds sprang towards him, covering him in a pile of shadowy wings and feathers. The mound melted into the ground, and the other visitors screamed.

He followed them again as they entered the basement, another of their number dragged away, this time by the not-rats.

At last, they entered one of his rooms, and he showed himself, laughing manically.

"Well hello…" He paused, gazing at each face in turn. "We seem to be missing some people…"

He took a dramatic step towards them, laughing more. And then, just as quickly, he left to go scare another group of visitors.

That group's screams rang in his ears, and he had to admit that he was having almost too much fun.

.

.

.

Starfire glowed eerily, drifting towards the group of visitors.

"You… do not… belong here!" She cried, flinging starbolts.

The visitors screamed, and she fought the urge to giggle. It was really working!

.

.

.

_1:04 AM_

Robin took the elevator down, laughing and joking with the group. He learned their names, shook their hands, thanked them for coming… Batman hadn't been the only one to teach lessons. No, Bruce had taught him how to play the friendly host.

Even if he wasn't feeling so friendly.

As they stepped out of the elevator and into the entrance hall, he noticed a teenager, of medium height, wearing a Gotham Knights pullover with the hood pulled up.

Funny. He hadn't seen the kid in the elevator, but there he was, stepping out.

He noticed the boy's face as he passed him, and grabbed his wrist.

"You again!" He hissed.

"I _did_ want to come to the haunted house. It was good, you know."

"What do you want?"

"Nothing."

"I don't want to see you on this property ever again. Do you understand me? Leave. Do _not_ come back."

"Alright," Drake said easily. With that, he freed his wrist and walked out.

**2**

Tim Drake walked out the front doors of Titan Tower, down the front walk.

"You know, my son says that mannequin they dressed up like Raven is actually a redhead." "You're kidding!" "Nope." "How does he know?" "He works at Spencer's and he said he saw Robin and Cyborg walk in, cool as you please, head straight for the rack with the inflatable corpses, and buy one. He said it was a redhead."

He passed the pair of gossiping women, walked down the stairs to the ferry. Bits and pieces of conversation danced around him.

"You know Joy, who works at the Movie Station? Meg styled her hair for the prom, and Meg said Joy saw the Teen Titans!" "Oh, did Meg style her hair? You know, it was _so_ nice to see Joy out of that pony tail!" "Dude! That place was wicked cool!" "No kidding! Man, I'd live there _any_ day!"

He stared out at the waves as the ferry sliced through the water. He had messed everything up. Sure, he knew that Robin wouldn't be happy to learn that somebody knew his secret identity.

But he'd never expected that Robin would react like _that_. Of course, maybe that was just the side of him that had held Robin as his one and only hero since he was a little kid.

He had completely _blown_ it.

Slade was going to be so mad…

…

…

But don't get mad, get even

And don't let 'em get to you

I never promised

It was fair and true

Before they're through

They'll have me hunting you

—Eddie and the Tide, _Power Play_


	6. Chapter Five

**Hello to the Night**

**Chapter Five**

**1**

_October 19, __6:42 AM_

Robin stared at the new kind of toothpaste sitting on his sink.

_Colgate Junior?_ He wondered, an eyebrow raised to the top of his forehead. _Bubble Fruit flavor? Since when did I like bubblegum flavored stuff?_

Sighing, he decided to try it. If he didn't like it, _then_ he could rush out of his bathroom wearing only a towel and his mask and complain to whoever had done the shopping and putting-away of groceries about messing up his morning routine.

Not that he wasn't tempted to do it now.

He spread some of the toothpaste on his toothbrush, and proceeded to brush his teeth.

_Ugh, this crap is AWFUL!_ _I don't think I've ever HAD worse toothpaste… not counting the time Alfred accidentally bought a denture paste and put it in my bathroom. Man, my teeth were numb for days…_

.

.

.

Starfire stared at the strange-shaped toothpaste dispenser sitting on her bathroom sink. Next to it sat a large bottle of a strange green liquid.

_Mentadent? Original Listerine? What happened to my Colgate Junior of Bubble Fruit? What happened to my Listerine of mild, orange flavor?_

_Beast Boy KNOWS that I do not like Listerine of strong flavor!_

.

.

.

Robin finished brushing his teeth roughly three minutes later, and then bent down to grab his mouthwash from the cabinet under the sink.

_Mild __Orange__ Flavored? What the? But I LIKE it strong!_

He made a sound very, very similar to a growl. He was not going to use mouthwash until he had his strong, awful, BITTER Listerine in his hands.

.

.

.

Starfire's eyes began to glow green. _I will not use this! I refuse to use Listerine of strong taste!_ _I will not use this Listerine until I have my Listerine of mild, orange flavor back on my sink!_

She sighed and slipped on a fuzzy pink bathrobe and fuzzy pink slippers.

.

.

.

Sighing, he recalled a phrase from Alfred's youth: "Let he who shall seek vengeance not seek it bare-assed!"

So he dressed in his uniform.

.

.

.

"BEAST BOY!"

"BEAST BOY!"

_7:00 AM_

Raven blinked at the pamphlet taped to their door. She'd gone out to get the paper, but hadn't found it.

It was very odd— the paperboy was the only civilian allowed on the premises between the hours of two AM and nine PM. So how was it that they had an illegal pamphlet but no paper?

_"_The Masquerade," she read. _The Masquerade? What is this, an invitation to some sort of dance?_

And then her eyes fell on the bottom part of the pamphlet's front page.

She didn't bother taking the elevator up. Instead, she simply floated up through the ceiling.

She shoved the pamphlet into Robin's hands, told him that there wasn't a newspaper, and asked him to look into it.

"Why don't you do it yourself?"

"You know my following disturbs me. In order to control my power, I don't dare read further."

She watched his eyes zip down the pamphlet's pages.

"It's… a curse," he said at last. "Apparently, it's based on an old Jump City urban legend. Supposedly, they only managed to banish the curse fifty years ago, and it started in 1619."

"What's the curse?" Raven asked. Of course. This was _her_ life.

Robin's fans painted themselves red like the bird and begged him to sign their shirts. _Her_ fans wore all black, read H.P. Lovecraft, made animal sacrifices to her, and revived a four hundred year old curse in her honor.

"Supposedly, the preacher in Jump City found a bunch of teenagers dancing on the Island… _our_ Island… and cursed them to dance forever. Or at least until they could get people to substitute. So at the stroke of midnight each night, they had to wander around the city, dancing and singing outside each door." He paused, sickened, and read aloud. "One who slept through their singing and dancing died. One who laughed with the Masquerade outside their door took the place of one of the Masquerade's number. The members of the Masquerade rent any who challenged it to pieces. One who looked a member of the Masquerade in the eye took the place of that member… in death."

"You mean it's a bunch of singing, dancing zombies?" Beast Boy asked. Trust Beast Boy to cut to the chase.

"Essentially, yes."

"We're going to have a bunch of zombies singing and dancing outside our door?"

"At midnight tonight," Robin agreed.

"Oh my god!" Beast Boy cried. "Tonight's a haunted house night! What if people get caught by this Masquerade thing as they're coming in or out?"

"We'll just have to close down at eleven thirty."

"What about kids? Kids will fall asleep before midnight."

Robin shook his head. "I don't know." He growled with frustration. "I don't have all the answers, you know."

"I think Slade's behind it." Raven said quietly. "Even _my_ fans wouldn't know the first thing about reviving a curse powerful enough to last four hundred years."

Robin paused, considered. "You know, I think you're right."

**2**

_12:00 PM_

"What is it?" Tim asked. "Some kind of ball?"

"A curse." The masked figure Tim knew only as Slade corrected him. "In order to take effect, the curse requires at least the _blood_ of a gypsy from which to draw its power. Effectiveness would be guaranteed if we had an actual gypsy, but I doubt we'll be so lucky."

"Let me guess. You want me to get into a fight with Robin." Tim crossed him arms over his chest. "Well, I won't do it."

Slade turned to face him. "Whatever gave you that idea? Ah, so you _do_ know Robin's secret identity." The masked man shrugged. "I _was_ going to have you locate a gypsy among Raven's followers, but your idea is much, _much_ simpler." The wicked mouth curved into a smile. "I like it."

"I already told you," Tim insisted. "I won't do it! I don't belong to you, Slade! And resurrecting some curse _does not_ sound like something the JLA would approve of! Give me proof of your membership! Right now! Do it or I leave!"

Tim couldn't see the stranger's face, but in his voice, Tim heard pity.

"Goodbye, Tim."

And with that, Tim blacked out.

_Time Unknown_

When he woke, he saw only darkness. He blinked, trying to decide if night had fallen or if Slade had stashed him somewhere with no light.

He had good vision, but wherever he'd woken, it was pitch black. He'd need night vision goggles to see anything at all.

With a hand, he felt out around himself. Well, wherever he was, he could stand. So he stood, and, leaning against a wall, patted himself down to make sure he didn't have any bombs or anything on his person. His search yielded only a blindfold.

_Gee, why didn't I think of that earlier?_ He wondered as he slipped the blindfold off.

He stood in an alley. Night had not yet fallen, but the sky _had_ gone purple.

_8:00 PM_

The team gathered around the large screen in the living room. Raven leaned against the wall, Beast Boy sprawled on the sofa with Cyborg standing directly behind him, and Starfire hovered close to the entrance to the kitchen.

Robin stood a little to Cyborg's right, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Robin," the Mayor admitted. "We have a problem."

"Yes?"

"The thugs that tried to rob my house are, in fact, robots."

Well. That was new. Looking around, Robin noticed the shock of the others.

Only Raven didn't appear shocked, but she'd drawn her hood up, so he couldn't see her face.

"We're sending a 'blueprint' of the robots to your computer now. We've never seen anything like them."

Robin watched as the 'blueprint' appeared beside the Mayor's face.

"That's one of Slade's!" Cyborg cried. "Slade really _did_ set it up."

Starfire had her doubts. "But what about that boy? Tim Drake? He told us that he saw Slade make a deal with the gang."

"What if he saw it because he was working with Slade?"

"No way! Those thugs _couldn't_ be robots!" Beast Boy shouted, waving his arms. "Hello? I tracked one when I turned into a dog?"

"Leaving a human scent could easily be accomplished by wearing a human's clothes and shoes," Robin mused.

"But what about the human faces under the ski masks?"

"They have special masks for movies; maybe Slade got his hands on some of that material?"

_8:11 PM___

Huh, funny how close to Titan Tower he was. Sighing, he walked over to the nearest corner and called a cab.

Robin didn't want to see him on Titan Island, as the locals had come to call it, ever again. Well, Robin probably wouldn't want it to be _his_ blood that revived this "Masquerade" curse thingy.

He had to warn him.

.

.

.

The main screen flashed, and the lower left corner suddenly showed the view from the entrance-hall security cameras.

A young man wearing dark pants and a Gotham Knights pullover stood outside their front door, head bowed.

The cameras were at the wrong angle to view his face, but Robin felt his stomach clench into a knot.

"I'll deal with our visitor," Robin said. "Cyborg, see if you can pinpoint Slade's location."

**3**

"I thought I told you not to come here again," Robin snarled.

"I know, and I wouldn't _be_ here if I hadn't been so stupid when I first got to this city," Drake replied. "Look, Slade's after you."

"I _know_ that."

"No, I mean he's setting a trap for you. He wants to engage you in combat, so he can get your blood."

"What would he want with my blood? Cloning?"

Drake shook his head. "Worse."

"Yeah? What?"

"The Masquerade… Slade's behind it. But in order to revive the curse, he needs the blood of a Gypsy so that the curse can draw power."

Robin snarled at the teen. "You're working with Slade?"

Drake shook his head again. "No, not anymore. Not after I figured out that Slade wasn't who he said he was."

Robin raised an eyebrow. "Tell me more."

"So, I arrived in Jump City. And I met up with this guy in a mask. He said his name was Slade, and that he was with the JLA. When I told him that I didn't know of any such member, he replied that he was something like a secret weapon." The boy released a cross between a sigh and a snort. "He told me to come and tell you what I told you, about the deal. When I asked why, he told me it was JLA business, and there was good money in it. I needed the money, and I wanted to see you again. I never thought that he intended to restore the curse! So I did it. And then about eight hours ago, he told me of his intent to resurrect the Masquerade. I tried to split. He knocked me out, and I woke up in an alley."

Robin ran his hands through his hair. "This… isn't good."

"Tell me about it!"

"Do you have any idea what he intends to do next?"

"That's all I know. I swear." The boy raised his hands in a classic 'I surrender' gesture.

.

.

.

Slade smiled. It was not a pretty smile. It was not an ugly smile. It _was_ a genuine smile. Not, of course, that its genuine status made it trustworthy.

He glanced down at the leather-bound book and the smile widened.

The Masquerade, he decided, was indeed a good plan. People thought it was a hoax, an urban myth.

When the hoax became real, the city would take too long in realizing it. By the time they could take action, it would be too late.

After all, there was only one way to stop _this_ curse.

"Power for power," Slade whispered. "Blood for blood. Sins of the father, passed to the son. The Dance of Death, the Relic Requiem…"

…

…

I never thought it'd be more than this

But you promised me and unfortunately

I bought it completely although

After I wake up I'm sure that I'll know

That today was just the rest of my life

I'm not gonna die sitting there hoping that I

Can someday come and claim the ring

It's not anything I know or want to become

-- Dance Hall Crashers, _Will Tomorrow Ever Come?_


	7. Chapter Six

**Hello to the Night**

**Chapter Six**

**1**

_October 19, __9:04 PM_

Slade smiled to himself in satisfaction as he stared at the two large sacs of blood.

Tim had been the perfect distraction, even not actively working for Slade, as he sent one of his small-time criminals to the blood bank in Metropolis. There, the criminal had indeed found blood that Pop Haly, the ringleader of one of the few remaining pure-Romany circuses, had donated.

With the blood of a Romany patriarch, the curse couldn't fail. Such a powerful curse… such a simple incantation.

The smile slipped from his face, and his expression became as blank as the natural state of his mask.

He faced the four women who would become the first members of the new Masquerade and poured the blood into four small cups.

"For the glory of Raven," he told them as he handed each member a glass.

"For the glory of Raven," the cultists agreed as one. "_Energía por energía. Sangre por sangre. Los Pecados del Padre, estan pasando al Hijo. La Danza de las Muertes, la Reliquia Requiem. Yo invoco el Pavor que Pecado hace."_

Each cultist drew a dagger down her arm, taking a single sip of the Romany blood. "_Energía por energía. Sangre por sangre. Los Pecados del Padre, estan pasando al Hijo. La Danza de las Muertes, la Reliquia Requiem. Yo invoco el Pavor que Pecado hace._"

Another sip. "_Energía por energía. Sangre por sangre. Los Pecados del Padre, estan pasando al Hijo. La Danza de las Muertes, la Reliquia Requiem. Yo invoco el Pavor que Pecado hace._"

He faced a group of petty criminals— the gang he had set up for robbery of the Mayor's house. "Have fun, boys."

.

.

.

_11:41 PM_

Robin observed the barricade of the underwater entrance to the Island. It was strong.

He'd disliked having to close the haunted house down. As tired as he was, the business was starting to grow on him.

_Well, maybe we could do it again next year_, he thought. _If there's enough of the city next year._

They'd requested that the ferry to the island be shut down, and the Mayor had granted that request.

Unless the Masquerade intended to dance their way across the turbulent water, there was no way they would get to Titan Island.

_11:55 PM_

He returned to Titan Tower to find Tim sitting outside the front door.

"You won't kick me out, will you?" Tim begged. "You haven't found any way to stop Slade… and the Masquerade starts in five minutes!"

"We don't know that! He never got my blood," Robin told him.

"He has other ways! He's clever… he's got to have other ways!" Tim argued. The teen looked desperate.

Robin relented. Slade _was_ Slade. Probably, Slade already had Romany blood. "They won't get here… but we don't have any way to get you to the mainland, unless you want us to carry you."

Tim blinked. "Thanks… I'd leave now and get out of your hair, but I don't have anywhere to go and no money to get me there. I used all I had getting to the Tower. Ever since Dad kicked me out, things have been just so _hard…_"

Robin puzzled over that. Tim couldn't have been sixteen— hell, he would have been surprised to learn that Tim was fifteen! That pullover would be worth fifty dollars, even used, back in Gotham. New, it had to have been closer to ninety or a hundred. How did an obviously rich kid wind up in Jump City, with no money, working for Slade?

"Come inside," Robin offered. "You can keep us up all night, telling us your story."

There. That solved the problem of what would keep the Titans awake that didn't involve laughter, along with the problem of "W_hat Do You Do With a Young Tim Drake?"_

_October 20, __12:00 AM_

Twelve people danced through the night, singing, laughing and jesting. It would have been more, but two of the petty criminals had challenged the Masquerade.

Each of the former cultists had picked up an instrument: one had a Congo drum, one had a pair of cymbals, another had a guitar, and the fourth had a violin.

The Masquerade's grotesque dance paused for a moment at a house, but soon picked up the pace. The tempo of the drumbeats sped up, until the song seemed almost frenzied.

A window slid open, and a man with no shirt leaned out. "SHUT UP! THE NOISE IS KEEPING US AWAKE!"

Enraged, the Masquerade stormed the house, up the stairs and the foremost member snatched the man up by the throat.

The man's last words were, "Cymbals… so sharp…"

.

.

.

_12:01 AM_

"So, Tim Drake," Starfire asked casually. "Where did you come from?"

"I lived in Gotham until six months ago. My dad kicked me out of the house…" Tim shook his head. "I don't remember why. So I wandered around Gotham, doing odd jobs… just trying to keep my head above water, I guess. But they kept firing me for no reason. Jobs started to come fewer and farther between. Eventually, I couldn't pay rent, or even for a hotel room."

Robin's brows furrowed. He motioned Raven over. "Raven… I'm going to go look up the name Tim Drake. There's something about what he told me earlier… it seems off. Why don't you come with me?"

"Afraid?" She intoned.

His eyes narrowed slightly. "Of curses? You bet. Just because he doesn't have my blood doesn't mean he didn't find another Rom."

Tim continued his narration, seemingly oblivious. "So I started breaking into empty houses… The cops eventually caught me in one, busted me for a misdemeanor B&E. I got two weeks in Juvie, considering that it was a first offense."

.

.

.

_1:10 AM__ (October 20)_

No one would ever understand just how the Masquerade traveled as quickly as it did, but the twelve singing, dancing corpses increased their numbers to forty-two by the time they arrived at the other side of town. By the time they made it to the docks across from Titan Island, they were fifty.

The water should have been impossible to cross. They had no way— no boat, no bridge. The tunnel had been barricaded.

Lewd songs leapt from their rotting throats, and they danced across the waves. Cruel laughter became their melody.

**2**

_1:13 AM_

Starfire looked out the windows to glimpse a sea calm as glass, with a group of about fifty dancing across it.

"They're coming!" She whimpered.

Tim fell silent, coming to stand beside her.

"Man, whoever heard of villains timing their attacks to go along with holidays?" Beast Boy complained.

Raven stood by the window, a familiar twinge in her temple. "I don't think he's doing exactly that. I think he knew that we were going to do the haunted house, and timed his attack when we would be most likely to fall into the trap."

"When we were tired," Cyborg snapped his fingers.

Robin stood and silently left the room.

Raven wouldn't have noticed if she hadn't seen the reflection in the window. She turned abruptly. "I don't want to watch. Just because Slade was behind this doesn't mean my fans had nothing to do with it." With that, she strode from the room.

As she left, she heard Starfire explaining to Tim just what she'd meant.

"You're kidding right?" She heard Tim chuckle. He didn't chuckle for long: somebody, probably Starfire, knocked the wind out of him.

.

_1:15 AM__ (October 20)_

"Robin?" Raven asked. She headed over to the evidence room. Robin sat at a computer terminal.

He turned to her. "What's going on out there?"

"Not much. The Masquerade draws closer."

"I've logged on... I'm going to Google 'Tim Drake Gotham City' and see what it comes up with."

He typed in, _Tim Drake __Gotham__City___

The monitor flashed, _Results: 25_.

He sighed. "Okay, let's just take the first one… it's an online article by Gotham's biggest newspaper."

Raven watched as he clicked the link.

Their eyes widened.

.

.

.

_1:16 AM_

The Masquerade danced across the still waters, singing and laughing. The earliest members of the Masquerade held body parts— the pieces of the first man they'd ripped apart.

_Back to back, oh, belly to belly, well I don't give a damn 'cause I'm stone dead already…_

.

.

.

The article on the monitor read _Son of J. Drake Goes Missing_.

Robin and Raven's eyes met. Hers were still growing wider. 

"Oh my god…" He breathed.

"He's _still_ Slade's tool!" Raven's eyes darkened.

Robin jumped when he heard something shatter beyond the wall. It didn't sound like a lot of glass, so it wasn't one of the windows.

.

.

.

_1:17 AM__ (October 20)_

A lamp exploded, showering Tim with glass.

"Holy shit!" Tim cried. "What the hell was that?"

"It was friend Raven," Starfire said sadly. "I feel badly for her. I think I will go see how she is doing."

.

_1:19 AM_

She found Raven and Robin staring wild-eyed at each other, their mouths agape. Black light was fading in Raven's eyes.

"Is something happening that I should know about?" Starfire inquired sweetly.

"Tim's dad didn't kick him out…" Robin said. "Slade kidnapped Tim."

Starfire shook her head. "That cannot be! Tim says he came here on his own!"

"Maybe he let Tim think that?" Raven asked, ruthlessly. "He just took him, and put him on the street, after convincing Tim that he couldn't go home?" Neither she nor Robin seemed fazed by the thought of such cruelty.

"What if Slade was the one who kept getting Tim fired?"

"Such planning! Slade has been planning this for months!" Cried Starfire.

"But how did he know that we would have the haunted house?" Robin scratched his chin and turned back to the monitor.

.

.

.

_1:18 AM__ (October 20)_

Tim brushed shards of glass off of his hoodie hesitantly, and stared at the shattered lamp. "Man… that was weird. She's not even _in_ here… Guess her fans are getting to her, huh?"

"Yeah, no kidding," Beast Boy agreed dully.

Cyborg didn't take his eyes off of the window. "That is the creepiest freaking thing, man…"

"I always hated ghost stories," Beast Boy shivered.

Tim could only agree. He stared out the window. _Ghost stories suck_.

.

.

.

_1:21 AM_

If any fearless person whose sense of humor hadn't already checked out had been watching and listening to the Masquerade, they would have laughed themselves into a fit over its songs.

They had gone through _Zombie Jamboree_ ten times already and had sung _Kinderly_ (a medieval song about the natural cycles of life) perhaps four times. They then sang some more obscure hits by the Medieval Babes, including _Adult Lullaby_, _Maiden in the Mor Lay_, and (this one they particularly liked), _So Sprecht Das Leben_, a song in which Life and Death argued over which of them owned the world_._

Now, as they sang and danced across the ocean to the Island, whirling in the light of the torches and lightning, they began to piece together their own song to a frenzied funeral dirge.

Many of the lyrics made little sense, but the few understandable lines had something to do with 'enough irony to die of.'

.

.

.

Robin shook his head in a mix of frustration and regret. "We aren't going to figure this out any time soon… We need more information. And to get it, we have to stay alive."

Raven nodded agreement. The twinge in her temple had grown worse, but she refused to give in to the threat of a migraine. She _had_ to stay together now. She had kept the migraines at bay for over a week now. She could do it another night.

"We must make all the citizens leave the city." Starfire's face looked unusually solemn.

At that point, Beast Boy came careening down the hall and through the open door.

"The Masquerade has reached the Island," the changeling gasped. "What do we do now?"

"We wait for dawn," Robin told him grimly. With that, Robin exited the program, entered the Tower control program, and typed a single command string.

The overhead lights in the Tower flashed red, and metal sheets slid down to cover the windows. The effect turned Titan Tower into something liked a closed box.

"That's our last line of defense," Robin said, quietly. "They won't be able to make it through _that_, I guarantee you."

Raven gave a mirthless half-smile. "We didn't think they'd be able to make it to the Island in the first place."

"That was an oversight. But unless they're all clones of Superman, or they can dance themselves through the strongest metal in the world, they won't make it through that."

"So… we have a bunch of zombies singing and dancing outside our door. They can't come in, which is good. And we don't intend to go out there. So what do we _do_?"

"We wait." Robin told him, his jaw set in grim determination.

"And whatever we do, we don't fall asleep, and we don't laugh," Raven added.

.

_._

_._

_October 20, __6:23 AM___

The sun rose over the sea in a beautiful blend of colors.

The city had thirty-eight fewer to see this sunrise than it had to see the previous one.

The Masquerade vanished, leaving a city full of turmoil and fear in its wake.

But, Raven knew as she stared at the rising sun, it would return. The Masquerade would keep coming back, until one side or the other found victory.

_Slade plays a vicious game_, Raven thought. _But we Titans can play along. Especially Robin and I…_

_We learned from the best, after all._

…

…

Hear the tolling of the bells-

Iron Bells!

What a world of solemn thought their monody compels!

…How we shiver with affright

At the melancholy menace of their tone!

For every sound that floats

From the rust within their throats

Is a groan.

...Feel a glory in so rolling

On the human heart a stone-

They are neither man nor woman-

They are neither brute nor human-

They are Ghouls:

— Edgar Allan Poe, _The Bells_

=====

Um, the humor in the last chapter? Probably the last of the real humor. These characters are going to get _very_ cranky, _very_ soon.

"_Energía por energía. Sangre por sangre. Los Pecados del Padre, estan pasando al Hijo. La Danza de las Muertes, la Reliquia Requiem. Yo invoco el Pavor que Pecado hace,"_ is Spanish for, "Power for Power. Blood for Blood. The Sins of the Father are passing to the Son. The Dance of the Dead, the Relic Requiem. I invoke the Dread that Sin makes."


	8. Chapter Seven

** Hello to the Night**

**Chapter Seven**

**1**

_October 20, __12:32 PM_

Raven groaned as she sat up in her bed. She wasn't sure _eight_ hours of sleep would be enough.

Robin's face stared down at her.

Her mirror shattered.

"Rise and shine. We have a lot of work to do today." With that, he turned and left.

She put her knees over the edge of the bed and pushed herself to her feet. Raven staggered slowly to the bathroom to rinse away the greasy feeling of un-showered body and brush away the morning breath.

.

The Titans had assembled in the living room, and judging from the sounds she heard coming from Beast Boy's stomach, the others hadn't had breakfast yet either.

"We survived last night," Robin informed them. "We just have to take it one night at a time, until we find a way to break the curse."

"The city must be in turmoil… the Masquerade had many members last night." The Masquerade had bothered Starfire, too. She seemed unusually somber.

Cyborg agreed. "There are at least twenty people 'missing'; probably closer to thirty or forty. But the police won't acknowledge them as missing until tomorrow night."

"You know what I didn't see before we shut down the windows?" Beast Boy yawned. "I didn't see any kids in that group."

"So either the city's children believed…" Tim entered the room. "…Or the Masquerade can't affect them."

"I'd put my bet on the last option," the Boy Wonder told them. "The Masquerade was a punishment against the teenagers, and against the city's adults, who let them dance."

"Has anybody considered the fact that this curse started in _1619_?" The half-robot asked. "Exploration of the west didn't start until after the Louisiana Purchase."

"Jump City didn't start as an American village." As usual, the Boy Wonder knew the answer. "It was a Spanish mission or something, begun in 1588. But by 1605, it had turned into a town."

"Uh, this city doesn't have any Spanish architecture. And it doesn't have a Spanish name. And the Masquerade… isn't a Spanish word."

Robin shrugged. "That's all I know."

"The Spanish architecture was all in a section of town destroyed in an earthquake fifty years ago," Tim told them. "And Masquerade is a word that Spanish borrows— El Masquerade. Jump City's Spanish name was Villa De La Muerta. Kind of obvious why they'd change it, huh?"

Cyborg raised an eyebrow. "How do you know all this?"

"I did a _lot_ of research on this place when I was younger. I was very interested in curses."

_Just like the research you did on Robin?_ Raven wondered.

.

.

.

_12:34 PM_

Emma's stomach grumbled and she rubbed at her eyes again. Her fingers did nothing to remove the tracks of tears down her face.

"Daddy?" She called, weakly. "Daddy? You said you'd come home soon! Isn't that Broadway Macabre thingy done yet?"

The empty house did not answer.

She opened a can of Spaghetti-O's, dumped the contents into a bowl, and put it in the microwave for a whole minute. After the beeping sounds, she opened the microwave, took out the bowl, and grabbed a spoon. She stirred the Spaghetti-O's to cool them down.

After she finished the bowl, she started to cry for the third time that day. "Daddy? Daddy?"

"Daddy!" She began to yell. "DADDY! DAAAAAADDDYYYYYY!"

But Daddy didn't answer, and she'd long ago given up on getting Mommy to wake up.

.

.

.

"You said we had a lot to do today," Raven began. "I _doubt_ it involves standing around talking. So let's cut to the chase."

Robin nodded his head. "We have to search the houses for the children of the 'missing' people… we'll have to find them by figuring out who didn't show up for school or daycare… and then get their addresses."

"That's gonna take FOREVER!" Beast Boy cried. "There must be fifty daycares in this town!"

Robin turned to face him, a grim, determined set to his jaw. "Then we'd better get started right now."

.

.

.

_12:36_ _PM_

Emma crawled over to the telephone and dialed 911.

"Hello?" She whispered to the lady who answered.

"What is your emergency?"

"Daddy left last night… and Mommy won't wake up… and Daddy hasn't come back…" Emma began to cry. "And Phillip won't stop crying 'cause I don't know how to feed him…"

"What is your address?"

"I don't know… we live right across from the McDonald's on Titania Avenue…"

.

.

.

_12:37 PM_

"Hello, this is the Jump to Titania Daycare Center," a cheerful female voice blared from the speaker.

"Um," Beast Boy consulted the ideas Robin had given him on what to say. "This is Beast Boy of the Teen Titans, and I'm looking for the names and addresses of children or infants who have not shown up today."

"Are you really with the Teen Titans?" The voice inquired. "Because even if you are, I'm not sure I can give you those."

"I really am… please don't make us hack your records. The JLA would KILL us."

The woman on the other end of the phone sighed. "Well, let's see… of the families in the Titania Avenue area…"

Beside him, Starfire inquired over another telephone, "Yes, this is Starfire of the Teen Titans speaking. I request a list of your children and infants who are absent."

**2**

_October 20, __12:40 PM_

Raven absently wondered if she had died and gone to hell. Entering a daycare to find one of her fans (read, "worshippers") in charge of signing the kids in wasn't quite the lowest item on her 'List of Things I Do Not Ever Wish To Encounter,' but it was down there with walking in on her followers making a human sacrifice.

Or it would have been down there if it had ever occurred to her that such an event was possible.

WHAT kind of daycare hired a member of the Church of Raven (she repressed a shudder at the thought that she had a church)?

The worshipper, of the name Kimberly Blake, smiled widely. "Here's a list of names, ages, and addresses. The ones with stars by them are on vacation."

Her eyes scanned down the list. She decided to head to the address of the first infant she found.

Infants, after all, took priority.

.

.

.

_12:45 PM_

Robin sighed. "No, I am not just dressing up like Robin. I _am_ Robin, and I really need to see that list."

The fangirl's eyes went wide as saucers. "WILL YOU SIGN MY SHIRT?"

_Time to play dirty. _His eyes narrowed. "Not unless I get that list."

The daycare worker considered. She could give Robin (THE Robin) illegal information and he would sign her shirt, or she could uphold the law, and have to tell all her friends that she'd said no. And they'd never believe her if he didn't sign something of hers.

"Okay!" The fangirl said. "Give me a minute!" She hit a few keystrokes and printed out a list. "Sorted by age, then name, then address."

"Thank you very much," he said, turning to go.

"Ahem? Forgetting something?" She handed him a Sharpie and turned around.

"What's your name?"

"Beth."

He sighed, uncapped the Sharpie, and wrote, _Life is not a witty statement. So you don't get one. Thanks, Beth. —ROBIN_.

With that, he left.

.

.

.

Cyborg patiently explained to the daycare lady that YES, HE REALLY **WAS** CYBORG, and NO, HE WAS NOT HERE TO ARREST HER FOR DEALING DRUGS, HE WAS JUST HERE TO COLLECT A LIST OF NAMES, AGES, AND ADDRESSES OF CHILDREN WHO HAD NOT SHOWN UP.

The daycare lady, instead of giving him any crap about that information being protected, printed out a list.

.

.

.

_1:00 PM_

"Uh, Robin?" Beast Boy inquired over the T-Communicator.

"Yes?" Robin asked.

"Have you given any thought to what we're going to do with these kids?"

"They'll have to stay with us for a while," the teen admitted. "It's not like we have a choice, is it? There isn't an orphanage that will accept them on only our word."

"Yeah, but what about the infants? Some of the babies are probably being breast fed and waking up every three hours at night…"

"There are supplements for that, I think. And we'll need to be awake all night anyway."

"Okay, let's say there are forty kids with 'missing' parents. Let's say thirty of those are kids who can sort-of take care of themselves, and ten of them are babies. WE STILL HAVE A PROBLEM!"

"I'm not seeing it."

Beast Boy gave a frustrated sigh. "Ten babies. Five of us. Babies are complex, fragile, ANNOYING things. I would know. I've been around babies before."

The picture on the tiny screen jerked around for a moment, and soon, it was Tim's face looking up/down at him. "Look, there's another option, and I'm not sure why it hasn't occurred to you. But you can call the cops from the kids' houses, right? If they haven't shown up at school or daycare, then one or both of their parents are 'missing' or dead. The police will pay attention to that."

It must have been the long period of sleep deprivation. It was the only explanation for why Robin hadn't thought of it. "Good plan. Tim, I need to talk to BB, give the T-Communicator back to him, okay?"

Beast Boy's face returned. "Yeah?"

"1. Change in plans. Alert the Titans in the city that instead of trying to transport the kids to the Tower, they need to call the police. 2. Do you have a list for me yet?"

"1 isn't a problem." Beast Boy told him. "And yeah, I have a list. You're near Jump to Titania, right?"

"Right."

"Okay, well at 212 Titania Avenue, Emma and Phillip Saxon didn't show up. Emma is five and Phillip is a year old. Then, at 216, there's a set of two-year-old triplets. In 217, there's just the four-year-old Tidus. That's it for now."

"Thanks, Beast Boy."

.

.

.

Raven knocked quietly on the door of the house.

A little boy answered the door. "Who are you?"

"I'm Raven from the Teen Titans." She offered the boy a smile. "Where are your Mommy and Daddy, Blake? Where is your baby brother?"

"Mommy and Daddy are still in bed… and Tony is in his crib. How come?"

"I was worried. Your daycare teacher told me that you and your baby brother didn't come to daycare today. She's worried too."

"I thought Mommy and Daddy were going to take us somewhere special today, but they won't wake up. I really wish they'd wake up."

She sighed. "Why don't I come inside and see if I can make your Mommy and Daddy wake up?"

Blake nodded and led her inside.

.

.

.

Robin turned the corner to the home of Emma and Phillip Saxon and stared. Police cars were everywhere.

"What's going on?" Robin inquired of the nearest police officer.

"We've got a homicide in every fucking _one_ of these houses. It started with a call from Emma Saxon. We were doing door-to-door to see if anybody noticed anything when we realized that the only LIVING people on this street are kids."

"Crazy," Robin said. Well, this street was under control. The kids would be placed in orphanages or foster homes. Orphanages might suck, but they were better for the kids than Titan Tower.

.

.

.

Raven felt her throat close in disgust. Blake's parents were under the sheets in a position that said they'd died so soon after a romp through the sack that they hadn't even had time to reposition themselves.

It was gross on way, _way_ too many levels, and somehow, Raven felt that she was intruding on something.

_The mausoleum of the happy couple…_

"Okay, Blake… I can't take you to Titan Tower with me, but I'm going to go call the police."

"How come?"

"Because your Mommy and Daddy aren't breathing. Do you have an older brother or sister?"

"I have a older brother. He's sixteen."

"Where is he?"

Blake shrugged. "He's not in his room."

Raven had a feeling that she knew where he was.

.

.

.

_1:10 PM___

Robin found the house's door unlocked, and quietly opened it.

From some distant reach of the house came a howling noise, like a very loud sob.

He found a white baby monitor on the foyer table and began to flick the switch from _send_ to _receive_.

It was then that he noticed the body on the couch. Blonde, slim, a longhaired, long-legged woman.

Probably the matriarch.

The howling noise persisted. Reluctant to interfere with a crime scene, he abandoned the baby monitor and went up the stairs. He followed the sobs until he came upon a baby's nursery.

Within the nursery, a baby girl (from the sheer abundance of pink and lace in the room) lay in her crib, squalling.

Obviously, no one had fed her for at least eight hours, and judging from the smell, no one had changed her either.

Not messing with a crime scene was one thing. But letting a baby sit in its own filth was quite another.

The problem, he realized, was that he didn't know the first thing about babies. Caring for an infant did not appear in the training roster, when Batman took him in.

Well, they couldn't support their necks, could they? So he'd have to be careful of that. And changing a diaper couldn't be all THAT hard, right? Figure out which side is which, then play point and click with the tabs?

_I really should have paid attention in home economics, back when he made me go to school…_

The baby continued to squall, and he thought of the dead woman sleeping on the sofa, and the apparently absent father.

The T-Communicator flipped open. He pressed a button and got the typical answer to the 911 call.

"Robin in. I was checking a house, and found a corpse in the living room. Female, in her thirties, wearing a wedding ring. No sign of the husband. Blood in the bedroom, bloody footprints leading to the door. The wife appears to have suffocated."

"What is your address?"

He rattled off the house number and street, then said. "There is only one survivor, an infant of indeterminate age."

.

.

.

_Titan__Tower__, 1:__12 PM_

Tim Drake stared at the monitor in front of him. If he couldn't help the Titans in finding of lists of the children of the Masqueraders, he could help them break the curse.

So he headed to and searched it for "the Masquerade". Doubtless, SOMETHING about the curse had made it there.

His eyes followed the lines of text in the blinking light of the monitor, but he assimilated no new information.

.

.

.

_October 21, __1:35 AM_

The Masquerade danced and sang, leaping in the light of the torches. The sea could become smooth as glass beneath their feet, but now they merely danced across fences. Sometimes their feet slipped and they cut themselves. Once, a Masquerader impaled his foot on one of the fence posts, but he merely lifted his foot off and laughed, singing about the look of the fencepost protruding through his foot.

The scene looked like something from footage of Mardi Gras in New Orleans… but with dead people, dancing and impaling themselves on fence posts. Instead of Mardi Gras beads and various beverages, the Masqueraders wore strings of whatever they could find, and carried body parts.

Dead flesh leapt and spun; hollow, strange laughs rang out. Flies hovered like a black cloud, and the various burning pieces of wood often danced through the air and then fell to the road. Rotting fingers picked the wood up by the burning ends, rotting mouths laughed at the image of their fingers burning and blackening.

One of the corpses beat down a door, singing, "_This house was my house, it was my flesh's house, house of promise, house oh live house…"_

The Masquerade ransacked the kitchen, heaving things from the refrigerator, scattering dishes, throwing pots and pans on the floor.

In the house, no one lived to notice, except for a little girl curled up in the living room, sobbing silently.

One of the Masqueraders wandered into the living room, humming some nameless tune.

The little girl sobbed only harder at the feeling of cold, cold fingers on her chin, making her look up. But she kept her eyes closed, softly mumbling, "P-p-please, Je-Jesus, I'll b-be g-g-g-go-hood. I'll-I'll eat b-b-beans," her voice went sharp on the word 'beans', "and I'll s-s-stop m-m-making fun of F-Father G-G-Grissom, if PLEASE, JESUS, Y-You w-will m-m-m-make th-th-them g-go awa-ay. J-Just m-m-m-make th-th-them g-go away, Jesus! Please!"

Tears leaked out through her closed eyes, and only fell harder when the Masquerader began to mimic her words, singing them.

**3**

_October 21, __8:01 AM_

Robin stared blearily at the television. The newscaster looked as exhausted as he felt— even make-up and hernia cream couldn't hide the bags under her eyes.

"The police are puzzled by a string of murders. Within the last two days, well over fifty people have died or disappeared, many of them married. There are so many sudden orphans that the District of Children's Services isn't sure what to _do_ with them all."

He turned the TV off. "Slade is behind this. We know that for a fact." He nodded towards Tim, then continued. "What we _don't_ know, is what Slade wants."

"But doesn't Slade want you to be his apprentice?" Beast Boy asked.

"It's a good guess, seeing as how that's what he has seemed to want in the past, but I don't see how gradually turning the entire city into zombies is going to help that goal. He has no guarantee that we'll last very long…"

"Maybe it's some sort of way of proving your worth?" Tim offered. "If you can last for a certain amount of time, he knows you're worthy of his power?"

"In order to know what he hopes to gain by this action, we have to know what Slade's ultimate goal is." Raven told them in her calm, dry voice. She looked up, her violet eyes piercing, startlingly clear. "Where does he want to be, twenty years from now?"

"She's got a point," Tim said, but Robin caught the slight tremor in Tim's voice when he said 'she'. Apparently, Tim hadn't fully gotten over the experience of a lamp exploding on him.

Robin shrugged inwardly. Getting used to Raven took time… more time than Tim would hopefully be with them.

"But how are we supposed to know where Slade wants to be in twenty years?" Beast Boy flailed his arms. "He's not exactly on our Christmas card list!"

"Eventually," the Boy Wonder sighed, "Slade will tell us his demands. For now, we just have to keep the city intact until we can figure out what he wants and how to end the Masquerade."

"Robin?" Starfire's vivid green eyes had drooping bags under them, and the spots on her forehead had turned a strange color. "How are we to insure that the city remains intact, when we must fear for our own lives and sanity?"

"Yeah, no kiddin'," Cyborg agreed. "How can we keep the city safe and sane when we aren't sure how much longer _we're_ going to be sane?"

"We can't do it alone." Robin admitted. "We'll have to call in the JLA… Tim! What information do you have on breaking the curse?"

Tim shook his head regretfully. "Nothing. It's not on Snopes, or any of the other urban legend sites… Nothing in English, anyway. It's all in Spanish, which wouldn't be a problem, but it's all heavily, _heavily_ influenced by Arabic."

"What do you mean?" Robin felt his brows furrow.

"I mean that the spellings of all the words are really, really weird. They're phonetic… from an Arabic accent. So some letter combinations have been switched. I got about as far as 'to write about the Masquerade in "sane" handwriting is to bring it back,' and then my head nearly exploded." He gave a frustrated sigh. "I can translate it if one of you could read it aloud to me."

"Raven, Tim— you work on that." Robin commanded. "Starfire, Beast Boy and Cyborg: alert the police of the newest families affected by the Masquerade. I'll get the JLA down here."

Starfire, Beast Boy and Cyborg nodded, then went to make calls while Raven and Tim headed to the computer room.

Robin turned to the big screen. "Contact the Mayor's office." The screen flashed a few times, and then the Mayor's face filled the screen.

"Yes, Titans?"

"Mayor, are you aware of the situation in your city?" Robin asked.

"Of course I am! People are dying and disappearing, there are riots at midnight…"

"Sir, I believe that a four hundred year old curse has been called back into being."

"Are you talking about El Masquerade?" The Mayor laughed. "That's a child's story! Why you shouldn't pervert church grounds!"

Robin walked over to a keyboard and entered a command string. He watched the Mayor's face turn pale.

"You were saying, Mayor? That is footage from early this morning. One of our security measures cut one of those people off at the waist. And yet the person seems completely oblivious, doesn't he?" Another command string and the Mayor turned slightly green. "Hm, they don't seem to notice that they're setting themselves and each other on fire. And, oddly, our security system could find no pulses— or signs of robotics. Those are dancing corpses."

Tim surfaced with a notebook just as the Mayor asked, "What do you _want_ Robin?"

Robin saw Tim's eyes narrow briefly.

"I _want_ to call in the JLA. A Mayor as concerned about his city as you shouldn't have any problems with that, right?"

"I've got enough vigilante freaks in this city. I don't need more," the Mayor hissed. The connection closed.

"He's in on it," Tim's voice was cold, certain. "Slade wants something only the Mayor can give him."

"Yeah, he's in on it," Robin agreed. "The question is, what can the Mayor give him?"

"The possibilities are almost endless." Tim scratched his chin, then offered the notebook. "That's the first page of the translation, and there's a _lot _left to work on."

Robin nodded. "Keep it for now, finish the translation."

"Sure."

.

.

.

_8:25 AM_

Tim stared at Raven, slightly unnerved by how quiet she was. It seemed strange to him, that a person this calm had such a restless, wild power. Of course, maybe her serenity let her control her power.

But it still seemed strange.

She read a line of text aloud, and he pieced it together, then translated it.

He looked down at the beginning of the second page. "Don't you think it's weird, that all the information about this is in Spanish?"

Raven shrugged. "It does seem a little odd, but superstition can lead people to do the strangest things."

He had a feeling she had direct experience with that.

He deliberately moved a little farther from her, just a little, to test a theory.

Her eyes sharpened on him. In fact, those calm, violet eyes never left him.

Just as he thought.

.

.

.

_October 22, __12:00 AM_

Raven watched Tim Drake closely. His refusal to work actively for Slade made him no less dangerous. He knew Robin's secret, all of it— even the parts she didn't know. Sure, she knew Robin's general history, but Robin knew_ her_ general history. They were on even terms.

Drake knew Robin's _name_, while Robin knew almost nothing about Drake.

"The Mayor is in on it," Tim said as they settled into the living room to wait for the Masquerade. "Slade got to the Mayor."

"I don't understand… the Mayor just condemned at least ten people to die each night, until we break the curse," Robin sighed. "How could any elected official be so stupid?"

"He's selfish." Raven told him. "If he thinks only of himself, condemning others to die is easy. The citizens never even cross his mind."

"What if he thinks _he's_ going to break the curse?" Tim asked. "If _he_ broke the curse, and you guys didn't… how would that look, huh? He'd be the hero. He could point at you guys and say 'where were the Teen Titans' and people would listen."

_Well_, Raven thought. _At least he's clever. He may know much, much more than he should, but at least he'll know how to use his knowledge._

Her eyes rested on him again, and she wondered just why he was in Jump City, claiming that he'd run away… when Slade had obviously kidnapped him? Just what kind of scam could he be pulling?

**4**

_October 27, __12:02 AM_

A column of people carrying various burning objects danced through Jump City's empty streets.

Officer Pavor puzzled over it, his brown eyes narrowing. They had declared martial law four days ago. Anybody who didn't want to spend the night in the slammer stayed in their houses after nine.

Politics. It had to be those damned politics. The partygoers were political activists— that was it!

He strode forward. "Excuse me!" He called. "Excuse me!"

The column stopped, but he could tell that they wanted to keep moving. They shifted restlessly.

He walked towards the front of the column, grasped the arm of the foremost member. "Excuse me, but what are you doing on the street at this hour? We declared martial law four days ago! We sealed the city and declared a nine PM curfew!"

"_Martial law!_" The woman sang. "_Martial law leaping from bank to bank/ martial law hopping around like a skank/smelling sullen and sounding rank/ martial law like a ship sank!_" She paused, and Pavor noticed that her face looked strange. "_We must keep dancing and moving on/ with red blood watering the lawn/ uptown, downtown, all around 'til dawn/ let us keep dancing, please/ or we'll kill you piece by piece_."

Well. That made no sense. It reminded him of that Stephen King book, _Desperation_, when the evil police officer read a couple their Miranda rights, with things like "I'm going to kill you," interspersed between the familiar lines. "Look, ma'am, I'm afraid you're all going to have to spend the night incarcerated." With that, he radioed for backup, saying that he had caught a group of people breaking curfew.

But she looked him in the eyes, and that was when he realized what was wrong.

The brown and black smudges on her face weren't weird make-up. They were dried blood. Her eyes weren't lifeless-seeming because of contacts, or being stoned. She was dead.

His lost thought before her corpse fell to the ground and his heart stopped beating was, "The sparrows are coming, the sparrows are coming…"

.

.

.

_12:30 AM_

Slade supposed that the only people who could possibly like the Mayor's house were either completely colorblind or thought that purple and orange complemented each other. _This house is giving me a headache. I think I'll kill him for this…_

The decorating style was _grotesque_. It made no sense. There were simply TOO MANY bright, clashing colors. The wallpaper was too busy— he could barely think. No matter what he did, something caught his attention.

_That is the last time I ever skip a methylphenidate dose. I should have known better._

"I'm sorry. Sleep deprivation gets to the best of us," he said lightly. "What were you saying?"

"I was simply informing you that Robin tried to bring the JLA into this."

Slade nodded. "And you prevented it, of course."

"Yes, I did."

"We have four days left until we can put the full plan into action. I trust you can keep things together for four days without arousing _too much_ suspicion?"

The Mayor nodded. "Of course!"

"Then I shall take my leave." And with that, Slade slipped from the house and to his subterranean home.

He should have taken his leave of the city, but the Mayor was a fool. He didn't trust him to play things out the way he needed them played.

Of course, since his home was _under_ the city, he couldn't sleep or laugh at any point during the night.

Of course, thanks to adult ADHD… Well, he didn't need to worry too much about sleep deprivation.

_He_ could hold it together for four more days.

 .

.

.

_12:50 AM_

"Jesus, BB!" Cyborg cried. "What in the HELL is wrong with you? Too much tofu? Or maybe you're just stupid!"

"Shut up, alright? We're all tired!" Beast Boy shouted back. "I'm sorry if it upsets you!"

"I just wish you could THINK! 'Cause if you could think, you could see that I'm right!"

The nattering continued endlessly. Raven thought her head would burst from the sheer stupidity of the argument.

Worse, she couldn't think of a cutting insult that would shut them up. "Guys, you know that the argument is pointless right?"

"Yeah, the argument is pointless!" Cyborg rounded on her. "'Cause everything is pointless to you! Fucking _Goth_!"

Finally, she came up with something. "Cyborg. Beast Boy. You are arguing about whether C2 is worse than Diet Vanilla Coke with the exact same intensity as you would argue about whether aborting Robin in the womb is worse than strangling him when he's two months old."

They shut up.

Robin gave her a strange look.

She ignored it and focused instead on Starfire. Star sat on her favorite end of the couch, quietly scribbling away in a notebook. But when Starfire looked up, to stare at the flickering lights in the city, Raven noticed that her eyes appeared bloodshot.

Cyborg and Beast Boy moved on to arguing over which tragic movie they wanted to watch.

"Cyborg, Beast Boy! Please!" Starfire cried. "I am trying to write! If you could please quiet yourselves out of respect and friendship?"

Cyborg and Beast Boy only argued more.

Robin sat on the couch, listening to music (probably classical or ragtime— he always went back to his roots when something disturbed him). He looked tired, exhausted. She could tell that he hadn't gotten enough sleep, even with his eyes hidden away behind the mask.

Tim Drake looked exhausted as well, and she almost, ALMOST took pity on him. But he was obviously trying to pull some kind of scam on them. But she looked at the bags under his eyes, at the red rims, at how sallow his skin was (_all of our skin looks like that_, she realized) and wondered how Slade could command such loyalty. It didn't seem like him, to be able to care or be concerned much with his minions. If Drake had been scamming them, it must have been at great potential gain.

**5**

_October 28, __11:01 AM_

Robin stared at the face on the screen before him, and looked around to make sure that none of the others had woken. He noted that they hadn't.

He couldn't blame them, but this was a call he _had_ to make.

"Batman," he said, softly.

"Robin?" Batman's face came on the monitor, but he wasn't wearing the mask. No, now he was posing as Bruce Wayne. "Robin, are you all right? I heard that Jump City enforced martial law after riots at night!"

"I'm fine, Bruce." He said it quietly. "So far. However, we've sort of had to go into nocturnal mode."

"Do you need anything?" He sounded like a desperate father.

The thought made him want to smile. "Yes, but what I need is illegal and I don't want you involved in it."

Bruce turned pale. "You aren't… on… anything, are you?"

"No, I am not hooked on drugs." He paused. "You aren't going to like this, but we need Superman down here. Superman isn't exactly easy to rip apart."

"What?"

"We need Superman to bowl into a column of zombies and rip them apart."

"Zombies?"

"Yeah… a fifty year old curse, called El Masquerade. Please… it takes too long to explain, and I'm exhausted. Let's just say it kills people… then uses their bodies to re-enact Mardi Gras at midnight every night."

Bruce blinked.

"I haven't been getting any sleep… and neither have the other Titans."

"Robin, I _can_ help…"

"Yeah, and then the Mayor would use your illegal presence to campaign against all superheroes and shit all over your name."

"And Superman would be better because?"

"Because at least he'd be alive to have his name shat on."

Bruce obviously didn't understand, and Robin nearly broke down. The conversation continued in the same vein for a while, until Robin finally couldn't hold it back.

"Damn it, Bruce, I'm doing this because I want at least _one_ of us to come out of this alive, and it looks like it might not be me! Okay?" He paused, letting the tears that had been gathering in his eyes fall. "I think I may be going crazy! The Masquerade has kept us awake until dawn for nine days now! You can't sleep between midnight and dawn, or you _die_. You can't laugh between midnight and dawn, or you _die_. You can't challenge the Masquerade, or it rips you to pieces!" He began to sob. "Do you have any idea what it's like, to be kept up all night for fear of turning into a zombie? We're going crazy just to stay alive! It's ripping the city apart! They kill at least ten people a night— the people who join it leave their kids, some of them only two months old!"

Bruce looked shocked. "Robin, I…"

"No, Bruce! Something is going to give! Either we find the counter-curse and end the Masquerade, or the Masquerade will kill us! We can't go on like this forever!"

"Stop the hysterics," Bruce said. "I know you're exhausted, I can see it. I'll see if I can get Superman down there to help keep the city intact, and I'll do research on 'El Masquerade'. You… just stay alive." Bruce flashed him a tiny, tiny half-smile. "Just stay alive, okay?"

Robin nodded.

_Just stay alive._

…

…

It's not important

Good and evil

They're neck and neck

Bases loaded

And there's three on left

We're in the final quarter

And it's running out

You'll need a father

Like there's no time out

— Eddie and the Tide, _Power Play_

=====

I won't update this fic again until next Monday or Tuesday, at the latest. I think.


	9. Chapter Eight FREAKING LONG

**to the Night**

**Chapter Eight**

**1**

_October 31, __12:24 AM___

Raven crouched by the sofa, huddling on the floor next to Starfire. The two female Titans clutched each other close, trying to pretend that they didn't hear the storm.

They'd long given up on trying to ignore the thumping, screaming and pounding of the Masquerade.

Raven doubted the situation would seem as scary if she knew where the other Titans had gone. But she didn't know, so she sat on the floor in the living room and nearly screamed every time lightning flashed, illuminating the dancing corpses.

Starfire whimpered. "Why does Robin not turn the windows into walls?"

"I don't know," Raven replied, looking into the bloodshot, teary eyes of her friend.

She found no comfort in those eyes and felt sure that Starfire found no comfort in _her_ eyes.

Lightning flashed, the shouting reached a fevered pitch, and the two girls screamed.

"Girls!" Cried Cyborg's voice.

Raven heard heavy feet walking towards them.

She clamped her mouth shut and pulled Starfire closer.

"Girls?" Cyborg sounded puzzled.

"Over here, Cyborg," Raven called. "By the sofa."

They could soon see Cyborg's red eye, glowing softly in the darkness. "Do you know where the others are?"

Starfire shook her head. "I do not know where Robin and Beast Boy are."

_Hopefully not with Tim,_ Raven thought.

"I haven't found Tim, either," the former athlete told them. "I wonder where they got to…"

Raven didn't say anything. There was really nothing to say.

Thunder rolled, lightning flashed, and the girls released sounds rather similar to squeaks. Even Cyborg jumped.

Outside, the Masquerade danced and screamed, sang and bled.

_12:01 PM_

Raven sat straight up in bed, panting. Sunlight couldn't filter through the heavy curtains, but she noticed that the dark cloth seemed luminous.

Dawn had long broken, so Raven stood and headed to the shower.

She hit the knob, terminating the jet of hot water. Stepping out of the shower and toweling off, she realized that she felt… refreshed.

It seemed crazy. How could she feel so _good_ after the fiasco earlier that morning?

She felt a little guilty— they'd never found Robin or Tim. Or Beast Boy.

_Something_ must have happened. Tim must have made his move. And she hadn't been there to counter it.

Robin and Beast Boy might well be dead because of her cowardice. She didn't deserve to feel as good as she did.

But she entered the kitchen to find Robin in a pair of jeans and a Robin-based T-Shirt. He stood at the counter, pouring Special K into a bowl.

"Where were you last night?" Raven asked, pouring water into her kettle.

"Where were _you_?" He replied. A moment later, "Would you please hand me the milk?"

The refrigerator door swung open and a gallon jug encased in her power flew out.

He caught it easily. "Thanks."

"Robin, do you know why the security walls failed?"

He shook his head. "I'm about to check on that, though."

"Okay… why the regular clothes?"

"I intend to take a little trip later today."

Beast Boy walked into the kitchen, wearing a strange expression on his face. "Robin's taking a trip? Can I go, too?"

"I sort of wanted to go alone," Robin hinted. He brightened. "There's one good thing about the Masquerade spending the entire night outside the Tower."

"We don't have to scour the city," Raven realized.

"Exactly."

Suddenly, the big screen in the living room filled with Slade's masked face. "Hello Titans," the smooth, sinister, and oddly regal voice intoned. "As you no doubt know, I have resurrected an ancient curse."

"What do you _want_, Slade?" Robin asked.

"Two demands, Robin. The first, that you meet me at midnight at the Old City cemetery… alone." He paused. "The second, that if you do not return to Titan Tower by the time the Masquerade arrives there, that the Teen Titans disband."

"I'm not sure we can agree to that— especially if not all of us are here." Raven forced herself to say it. The absence of the other Titans didn't particularly bother her, but she wasn't going to pawn the team, and possibly its leader's life, for the negation of an empty threat.

"You have an hour." With that, the image of Slade vanished.

"Great news!" Tim's voice cried. He sounded ecstatic. "I finally translated it all! I know how to break the curse!" Raven again found herself hard pressed to classify the voice's owner as evil.

She watched Robin smile widely.

"How?" He demanded of the younger teen.

"It's a simple incantation, along with a minor blood sacrifice."

At Robin's uncomprehending glance her way, she informed him. "A blood sacrifice means the person or people breaking the curse have to draw on somebody's blood. They also call a major blood sacrifice a 'lifeblood sacrifice,' because it kills the sacrificial object. A minor blood sacrifice can be anywhere from a drop to a nearly fatal amount."

"Yeah, that," Tim said. "Anyway, the curse starts out with _energía por energía; sangre por sangre_."

"_Power for power; blood for blood_…" Robin breathed.

"In this case it means that in order to break the curse, the same number of people who made the curse must recite the counter-curse, with the blood of a gypsy from the same company—"

"—Kumpanya," Robin corrected. "But I'm beginning to see." The Boy Wonder smiled.

"We only have an hour to inform the others," Raven reminded them. "We should come up with a plan so that we don't have to give Slade what he wants."

"Which is for the Titans to disband," the changeling finally spoke again. He had, apparently, been shocked into silence.

A wry smile almost quirked Raven's lips. _Not necessarily a bad thing… But, on the other hand, if it shocks Beast Boy_ _into silence…_

"No," Tim said. "No, if all he wanted was for you to disband, he could have gotten it from the Mayor."

_Did Slade tell you to say that?_ Raven wondered. But aloud, she only said, "We don't _have_ to make this deal. Slade won't expect us to refuse, and I don't think refusal will do any real harm." She poured the now-boiling water into a mug and dropped a tea bag into the steaming water.

"What are you talking about?" Beast Boy looked ready to froth at the mouth. "The city's going to turn into zombies!"

"But Slade doesn't have the Masquerade under his control." She said it in her trademark monotone, with just a slight edge. "If he can't make it any worse, and we can end it, why should we even make the empty effort of appeasing him?"

"The curse won't end before the Masquerade starts," Tim whispered. "If I had just worked a little longer yesterday, we could have ended it last night."

"Well, we can still end it tonight. Robin wouldn't have to go." Beast Boy offered the suggestion with his typical optimism.

"No," the Boy Wonder sighed. "He's got us in a double trap. Even if we end the curse, the Mayor will just order us to disband if we don't take the deal."

"But can't we just re-form, after the Mayor is arrested?" Beast Boy asked. "And why didn't Slade tell us that?"

She restrained an exasperated sigh. "Because it's part of a _trap_, Beast Boy; if you want to trap your enemy, do you tell him what the trap is?"

"So we take the deal." Raven's knuckles tightened on the mug as Tim said the word _we_: Tim didn't get to consider himself part of a _we_— particularly not the Titans' _we_.

Starfire floated into the kitchen with Cyborg close behind. "Why such solemnity?"

The half-demon noted her Tamaranian friend appeared to have recovered from the events of earlier that morning. Cyborg also looked rested, a first since the entire fiasco began. Their faces paled when Robin explained the situation, but naturally, they agreed with him.

**2**

_1:24 PM_

"We'll take the deal," Robin informed his masked enemy through gritted teeth.

Slade only looked at him impassively. "I thought you might." With that, the mysterious villain vanished from the screen.

_Well_, he sighed. _There. I did it. Now what?_

The screen before him flashed again, and he smiled wryly. _I guess that's what._ "Accept message," he snapped.

Superman's visage appears on the screen. "Robin— Batman gave me your message." The Man of Steel looked puzzled. "Just what's going on down there?"

"Weird, nigh unexplainable things. Suffice to say we're dealing with a powerful curse."

"I won't be able to help you." Superman looked genuinely regretful.

Robin felt himself blink several times, and his eyebrow suffered from a thirty-second spasm. "What's going on in Metropolis?"

"I've got some sort of muck monster. It seems bent on eating waste."

_Plasmus… but how the hell did it get all the way to Metropolis without us noticing a breakout?_ His mouth gritted into a scowl. _Of course. The Mayor must have secretly pardoned him or something. God **damn it**, what the hell are we going to now?_

"You're fighting Plasmus. He becomes human again when he falls asleep, so concuss him." _I didn't **really** think that Slade would let the JLA help us, did I?_

Superman looked surprised, and Robin couldn't help but notice that his mentor would never have allowed such a look onto his face. "Thanks for the help."

_Time to pull out the old Batman routine. _His lips thinned into a perfectly straight line, and he purged all expression from his face and voice as he asked, "Will that be all?"

The sudden coldness from a leader so usually friendly (or at least human) caught Metropolis' favorite superhero off guard, and it showed. "Uh… yeah, I think... Is something wrong?"

_Something is **very** wrong, you ass._ _A curse is trashing my city, nobody can sleep, and Slade is running fucking **circles** around us Titans._ "Negative."

The look on Superman's face told Robin that he didn't believe the youth.

Robin didn't care.

"Right then… Superman out." The face vanished from the screen, and Robin sighed.

_It may be petty, but just once I'd like to be the one to end a conversation on that thing._

_3:00 PM_

Batman's face appeared on the screen just when the others had gathered in the living room to work out just how to break the curse.

"Robin." Two syllables, clipped. Only one who knew Batman exceedingly well would have known of the thousands of possible meanings conveyed in that word. Of those people, only Robin could have decided which meaning the voice conveyed, and how to interpret it. 'Son.'__

Automatically, Robin felt his hands slide behind his back and his feet slide together. "Yes?"

Batman had ingrained that stance into him since he was nine years old— _this_ was how you answered the com screen in HQ: standing front center, spine straight, hands at your sides or behind your back, head high, and your feet together. You did not say _what_; you did not say _yeah_, you said _yes_.

He learned that right after he learned "Batman is the boss," "one does not say no to the boss_,"_ and "Batman makes the rules. Reporting Batman's breaking of the rules to Alfred is a Bad Career Move._"_

"I have information you may need." 'I want you well armed for this.' "I conveyed your message to Superman." 'I'm still a little disappointed, but that's between us._'_

Robin wanted to say, 'spill'. Instead, he replied, "Thank you."

Batman nodded. "Ten days ago, a large creature made of stone broke into the Metropolis blood bank and stole two bags of volunteered blood. Records indicate that the blood belonged to 'Pop' Haly."__

"Thank you." _Well, at least we won't have to go to too much trouble finding a gypsy whose blood can break the curse… Why in the hell is Tim going white like that?_

"I also found that Gotham's most popular missing person was seen entering Jump City. If you come across—"

Tim backed up, knocking over a table and calling Batman's eyes off the Boy Wonder.

"—Never mind. I see you've already found him." Batman's eyes narrowed for an instant. "Deliver him to the proper authorities in Gotham, please." 'Don't make me come down there to retrieve him.'

"We will." Robin told his mentor. "As soon as we sort out the matter here."

"One more item." 'I have one more thing to say. In private.'

"Guys," Robin told the others over his shoulder. "I have something I want to ask Batman. In private."

He didn't see them leave, but he heard the elevator doors slide open, then five sets of feet troop in. The elevator doors closed.

"L-n-g Floor: Stat dot lock." He heard the doors click. "Soundproof underscore active dot l-n-g floor. L-n-g underscore r-m: cameras dot inac dot t. T equals twenty min. A equals twenty sec." He paused, counted twenty seconds, and then said, "We have twenty minutes."

"I want you to come home, when this is all over."

"I don't know if I can do that."

"I know, I know. But I need you here."

"You don't need me. You're getting along just fine without me."

"…maybe not for crime fighting. But I need you here. Alfred misses you."

"…you only need me home because Alfred misses me?" He knew it wasn't true. But he needed to hear the old Bat say it. Even just once. Death had never seemed nearer, and he needed to hear it before he died.

Batman sighed. "Fine. _I_ miss you."

"I miss you too."

"Will you come home?"

"Probably not."

The barely-visible eyes narrowed. _You do not say no the boss._

He wanted to cry. But Robin doesn't cry, so he removed the mask in view of another person for the first time since he arrived in Jump City. "I'll come back, after this is over. But only for a little while." Tears fell. "I'll come back if I can."

The Batman mask slipped down too, and suddenly it was an unmasked-Batman staring down at Dick Grayson, and suddenly it didn't matter.

Because somehow, they had gone from two super heroes, to mentor and mentored, to just being father and son.

And it felt good.

_3:30 PM_

"Tim, tell us everything you remember about after your father kicked you out," Robin said, quietly.

Beast Boy watched the terrified-looking boy intently, trying to figure out just what in the heck was going on. Tim was a Missing Person and Batman had Robin's balls in a jar?

Something was going on here. He smelled a rat. A rat with one eye. A very stinky rat. Not a pleasant smell.

"Look," Tim sobbed. "I don't know, okay?! I just… I just…"

"Friend Tim, do not be so distressed!" Starfire offered, ever cheerful. "We will _help_ you!"

"Yeah, Tim. Helping people is what we do. We want to help you, but you have to talk to us first. We can't fix it if we don't know how and why it went wrong." Cyborg's voice had a calming effect on the boy.

Cyborg calmed everybody down. Everybody listened to Cyborg (when he was worth listening to, anyway). Everybody talked to Cyborg.

In fact, Beast Boy noticed, he and Raven were the only people who weren't trying to coax Tim into talking.

_United in silence. It's a freaking miracle!_ He caught her eye, scooted over to sit next to her.

"What's up?" He whispered.

"I don't trust him," she whispered back.

"Oh…" Beast Boy looked at the shuddering, sobbing youth. "Well, if he's as bad as you think he is, then he's a really good actor."

But something in the boy's posture changed. "Okay, so… so my Dad kicked me out. I didn't know what to do, so I wandered around for a little while. I got mugged— some guy hit me in the back of the head, and when I woke up, I didn't have any of my money with me. Well, I figured I'd just see if I could get along, right? So I got a job at McDonald's, and grabbed my emergency cash from the bank. I slept in a hotel room until McDonald's fired me for no reason. I went through a lot of jobs like that, and a lot of hotels, too." He paused, but nobody asked him anything. After drawing a few shuddering breaths, he continued. "And you guys know about how I started breakin' into empty houses, 'cause I told you, and you know how I did ten days for B&E. And then I got out, and somebody mugged me again. Well, I'd hidden cash in a little locker in the bus station, and I went and got that and saw that I could just barely afford the ride to Jump City. And I thought, 'screw this, man. This city blows,' and I bought the ticket."

Beast Boy noticed that Robin's head was turned completely to Tim. Even through the mask, the changeling could tell that his leader was furrowing his brows.

"And I got to Jump City. It's a five fuckin' day bus ride, but I got here and I got out and I thought, 'Jesus, I'm stupid. Now what do I do?' So I wandered around, and got a job at the Pizzeria. But they fired me in two days, and I was like, 'what happened to two week's notice, huh?'" He stopped, sorted. "Bastards. And then I tried to hold up some guy, and he knocked me out. I woke up, and I was with the same damn guy in this cave or something. It had all sorts of gears in it. And he told me that I could do a job for him and through him for the JLA, and he'd give me a lot of money. I needed it bad, so I took it. And you guys know the rest."

They did indeed know the rest. Beast Boy watched Robin tap his chin.

"Tim, Batman uploaded the police reports regarding you to the Titan Computer. They include witnesses placing you in various establishments, but just before the police would try and retrieve you from one, you would vanish, with management saying either you left or they had fired you. Convenient, isn't it?"

"Are you saying someone orchestrated my various encounters with unemployment?"

"That or you had an ear in the police," Raven commented, her voice dry.

"That's crazy! Who would go to so much trouble with _me_?"

"There is no 'too much trouble' for Slade." Robin told the youth. Everything about the Boy Wonder seemed grim. "Not if you could prove useful."

"Or you have something he wants," Raven's monotone provided. Beast Boy noticed that Robin's and Raven's eyes met.

"What could I have that Slade would want? I'm just Tim Drake..."

Raven spoke again. "Robin's identity. Slade could easily use that information."

"Wait a minute," Beast Boy cried. "Tim knows who Robin _is_?"

"Yes," Robin confirmed.

"So you trust this guy more than you trust us!"

Robin shook his head. "No, Tim figured it out on his own, using information very few could gather or remember."

"That's bad, man," Cyborg sighed. "That's really bad."

"I know," Robin snapped. "And if Batman knew, he'd kill me! So don't. Tell. Anyone!"

"Yeah, what's _with_ you and Batman?" Beast Boy demanded. "I mean, usually you're this gung-ho-fearless-leader-everybody-obeys-me guy, and then you go quiet-mousy-yes-man-trembling-eyes, all because this guy in a bat suit shows up on the com screen!"

Robin's eyes narrowed. "Let's just say… the first things I learned when I became Robin were: Batman is the boss, one does not say no to the boss_,_ and Batman makes the rules." He glared at Beast Boy, and somehow the mask didn't diminish the glare's effect. "Batman doesn't tolerate disobedience or sloppiness. He isn't exactly a… friendly… mentor."

"What's the news on Superman? Is he going to help us?"

"He won't. He's got Plasmus to deal with, plus he has to track down Cinderblock… I don't think he's going to put his neck on the line for us."

"Why?"

Robin shrugged. "He strikes me as a law-abiding Boy Scout type. So I guess that's why."

"Hey!" The green-skinned comedian cried. "_I_ was a Boy Scout!"

"I'm not surprised," the Boy Wonder sighed. "The point is, he's generally a law-abiding type, and Jump City is under martial law, and nobody's allowed to enter or leave the city."

"So we're screwed."

"Yeah."

__

_8:00 PM___

"I have a movie," Robin told them quietly. "It's a long one, because it was actually a play, but it isn't exactly a comedy, and it's a good movie."

"What is it?" Beast Boy asked.

"_The Sting_."

"Sounds like horror," Raven said, looking up from her book.

"It's not. It's… Well, you just have to see it. I can't explain it." _I was in it in my second year at __Gotham__'s __Youth__Preparatory__Academy__._ "But it has plot twists galore."

"I'm in," Cyborg said.

Raven nodded. "I guess it wouldn't hurt."

"If someone will explain to me the parts an entire viewing cannot."

"I'll explain what I got, Star," Beast Boy informed their Tamaranian friend.

Tim shrugged. "Yeah, I'll watch it, I guess."

_11:10 PM_

Robin didn't want to admit it, but he was nervous. Sure, he'd battled Slade alone before…

But never at this much of a disadvantage. At least the previous times he'd gotten the right amount of sleep.

"It was a good movie," Raven informed him quietly as he checked and re-checked his gear.

"Thanks," he replied. "Normally, I prefer action… but gangster movies _can_ be fun."

"This one _was_… fun." The girl admitted. "Though I don't think Starfire understood it all."

"Well, she has Beast Boy to explain it to her."

"Yeah, like that's going to help."

His gaze sharpened on her. She normally wasn't _this_ down on Beast Boy if he wasn't around.

**3**

_11:45 PM___

Robin slid the key into the motorcycle's ignition and revved it for a moment.

The moment passed and he sped off into the night for the Old City Cemetery.

_11:59 PM_

The Cemetery was a mid-sized run-down lot, with four hundred year old graves he could barely see in the night.

He knew of the place by reputation; the superstitious said it was haunted.

Looking at the place in the gloom of All Hallows Eve, Robin could see why. For some reason, the utter lack of anything but tombstones and monuments in the light of the full moon seemed both hauntingly beautiful in a melancholy way and chillingly terrifying.

The graveyard was nothing but hill, graves, and moon.

"I'm glad you could make it, Robin." The regal and sinister voice intoned.

He automatically turned in Slade's direction.

But suddenly Slade was airborne, and a kick threw Robin backwards.

Before he could stand, Slade crouched atop him. He felt gloved fingers reaching towards his face, and he began to struggle.

"Now, now, enough of that, Dick." The other hand slapped him, and the first hand found his mask. The thin strip of cloth that he had become so used to peeled away. "You have the prettiest blue eyes."

_November 1, __12:01 AM___

Forty-five people danced across the sea, towards Titan Tower.

_12:02 AM_

"How long can you keep your pretty eyes closed, gypsy?" Slade laughed over the sudden sounds of singing and dancing. "I hope it's a long time, or else you'll join the Masquerade."

"Bastard," Robin growled.

"Try and take me down."

"I will."

And with that, he launched himself in Slade's direction.

_12:06 AM_

Starfire stared out the windows at the mass dancing on the lawn. There were between forty and fifty people, all laughing and shouting rude words.

Tim looked terrified, but Raven watched the scene impassively.

_12:07 AM_

He sent a vicious kick towards the villain, knocking him back.

_"Oh-oh-oh-oh…" _Sang the Masquerade. "_Everybody was Kung Fu fighting, those jerks were fast as lightning…_"

Robin stopped for a minute, not only to listen for where Slade was, but also to allow his mind time to boggle.

"_In fact it was a little bit fright'ning, but they fought with expert timing/ There was funky __China__ men from funky __Chinatown__…_"

"That was the worst song. Ever." Slade commented dryly.

_Aha!_ Robin barreled towards his opponent with a vicious punch. With that, they stayed together, sending each other a flurry of attempted Aikido throws, and then moved into a bit of cutthroat staff-work.

"_They were trapping when up, they were trapping when down/ It's an ancient Chinese art, and everybody knew their part/ For my friend, ain't you a stiff, then I'm kickin' from the hip…_"

Funny, how similar he and Slade were.

"_Everybody was Kung Fu fighting, those kids were fast as lightning/In fact it was a little bit fright'ning, but they fought with expert timing…_"

"God, I hate that song," Slade sighed. "Or maybe I just don't like Carl Douglas…"

Robin moved in for the kill, but soon found himself flying straight towards the singing.

..

..

Everybody's trying to say I'm wrong

I just wanna be back where I belong

World turning

I gotta get my feet back on the ground

World turning

Everybody's got me down

Maybe I'm wrong but who's to say what's right

I need somebody to help me thru the night

—Fleetwood Mac, _World Turning_

=====

You didn't _REALLY_ think I was going to bring those adults into this fic AGAIN, did you?

And I didn't think I was going to make my update deadline (23:30 [10:30 PM] 03.08.04 [8/3/04]). But ha! I did! I bite my thumb at thee, readers!

Freaking LONG chapter, people!

Incidentally, I'm plotting a sequel (though it's a very loose, penciled-in plot). I'm also plotting another fic. Here're the stats:

_Title: So Far, So Fast_

_Summary: AU. Tim Drake and his older adopted brother, Dick Grayson, move to __Jump__City__ looking for a new life. Dick may have found his… but Tim suspects that it involves a court of vampire motorcycle racers._

Would you read it?


	10. Omake InBetween

[[If you don't know what an omake is... I really can't help you. But I CAN tell you that it's not a teaser. Ha-ha! This also... isn't REALLY an omake.]]  
  
Hello to the Night  
  
Omake In-Between  
  
Hi! Welcome to the HTTN Omake Theatre! It's a one-time publication, considering that I tire of writing horror and gloom, and need to stretch the creative muscles. In other words, I needed a break. Now, on to the Omake Theater...  
  
------------------------------------------------  
  
The scene takes place inside, the same place where the Titans played cards in Winner Take All, except this time, they're playing Blackjack. Also, Tim is with them.  
  
Robin shifts in his seat, shuffling the cards. "So, this new fic she's got us in..."  
  
"Yeah. I doubt it's going to have a happy ending," Tim nods.  
  
The cyborg wonders, "Why? He's," he gestures to Robin, "[ censored for spoilers ]!"  
  
Starfire shifts in her seat "What is censored?" She asks aloud, her wide green eyes staring into Raven's.  
  
Raven sighs and answers her. "It's where somebody edits something out, to make sure no one takes offense."  
  
"Oh..."  
  
Beast Boy, who has previously been silent, shifts impatiently. "Can we just get back to the game?"  
  
Robin looks, startled, at the boy sitting next to him. "Sure. I guess I'll deal."  
  
He deals, passing cards first to Raven, then to Tim, then to Cyborg, then to Starfire, and on to Beast Boy and himself.  
  
Starfire picks up both her cards so that only she can see them.  
  
Robin corrects her. "No, Star, you have to leave one card visible. Preferably the card I dealt you that was visible."  
  
Starfire obliges.  
  
Raven says, "Hit me."  
  
Robin deals her another card.  
  
Quickly, she says, "Stay!"  
  
Tim seconds her motion to hit. "Hit me."  
  
Cyborg says, "I'll take a hit too," his red eye glowing in the near darkness.  
  
Starfire, as usual, completely misinterprets earth phrases. "I think I will blacken the knave."  
  
Beast Boy corrects her. "You... can't do that, Star. Do you want to hit—get another card— or stay where you are?"  
  
"No." She says. "I have blackened the knave!"  
  
Robin deals Tim and Cyborg new cards, saying, "You can't do that, Starfire. Really."  
  
Starfire gives a long-suffering sigh. "Oh, fine. I would like to stay."  
  
"Hit me, Traffic Light!" This can only come from Beast Boy, and it did.  
  
Robin grits his teeth and obliges. "I'll take a hit, too. So, cards?"  
  
Raven informs them, "Twenty," and levitates her cards into the middle of the table.  
  
Tim tells them, "Thirty-two," to the laughter of the others. He tosses his cards into the middle of the table.  
  
"Nineteen," says Cyborg as he tosses his cards into the middle of the table; one falls into Raven's lap. She levitates it to the center of the table.  
  
"The black knave!" She slams her cards down proudly for all to see.  
  
Robin congratulates her.  
  
Beast Boy sighs. "Twenty!"  
  
Robin laughs at his loss. "And Dealer has seventeen. At least I'm not alone in losing, huh?" He cracks his knuckles. "Let's go another round."  
  
All nod, so Robin deals.  
  
Raven looks at her cards. "Hit me." She accepts another card from Robin.  
  
Tim tells the dealer, "Stay."  
  
"Hit me." Cyborg says. "So, what do you think of that ending, huh? Just [ censored for spoilers ] off the R-Cycle and then [ censored for spoilers ] stay at [ censored for spoilers ]!"  
  
Robin passes Cyborg a card  
  
Starfire says, "Stay. I did not like when Beast Boy scratched me."  
  
Beast Boy defends himself, "You were squeezing me!"  
  
"You were purring!"  
  
"It isn't always a sign of happiness! Cats do that when they're scared or hurt sometimes, you know!" Beast Boy sighs and toys with his cards. "Hit me." He takes the card Robin passes him.  
  
Robin gives himself a card. "Who's got what?" He nods at Raven.  
  
"Eighteen," the half-demon informs them.  
  
"Twenty-one!" Tim laughs. "Whoo-hoo!"  
  
Cyborg tosses his cards into the center of the table. "Nineteen."  
  
"Twenty." This from Starfire.  
  
"Nineteen," Beast Boy reveals a Jack of Hearts, an Ace of Diamonds, and an eight of spades.  
  
"Uh, BB? Why did you hit with a hand like that?" Robin has an eyebrow raised.  
  
"I started out with the Ace and eight, okay? I figured I could handle it if what you dealt tried to bust me out! Besides, what do you have?"  
  
"Seventeen again," he admits, revealing two aces (Spades and Hearts) and a five of Clubs. "Man, I can't believe I [ censored for spoilers ]!" He passes the cards around.  
  
"Well, it was better than the alternative!" Tim says.  
  
"I don't see why you find it so hard to believe." This comes from Raven, in her usual stinging monotone. "That's what happens when you [ censored for spoilers ]." She glares. "It's not like Batman brought you up to be so careless! We know you did it on purpose. Hit me."  
  
Robin deals her a new card.  
  
"And it probably saved our lives, too," Beast Boy adds. "Even if it did bar you from the JLA forever."  
  
"I do not understand. Robin is a great hero! Why would the JLA not accept him?"  
  
"Because he [ censored for spoilers ] and [ censored for spoilers ] on purpose, Star," Tim explains. "Hit me."  
  
Robin passes Tim a card.  
  
Starfire looks curiously at Tim. "Tim, is it true that you will become Robin?"  
  
Tim shrugs, looking at his new card. "Yeah. There's another Robin in the middle, but he dies, and then it's on to me."  
  
"Stay," Cyborg says. "So, Tim, can we trust you?"  
  
Robin obliges, watching Tim closely.  
  
"I'm the next Robin. And even if the one sitting at the other end of the table was the first and best, I'm still a damn good one. Better than the second Robin, definitely."  
  
"That's not an answer," Raven intones.  
  
Tim shifts in his seat, then says, "Alright, alright. [ Censored for spoilers ]." He gives a long suffering sigh.  
  
The assembled people around the table [ reaction removed for spoilers ].  
  
"Stay," says Beast Boy.  
  
"I shall stay as well," agrees Starfire.  
  
"Anybody else want a hit?" Robin asks.  
  
Nobody does, and he grins. "Raven?"  
  
"Busted out," she admits. She levitates the cards face down.  
  
"Twenty-one," Tim again proclaims.  
  
"Twenty." Predictably, this comes from Cyborg.  
  
"Nineteen."  
  
"Seventeen."  
  
"Twenty-one," Robin smirks. "And Dealer wins ties. Anyone up for another round?"  
  
"Count me out," Beast Boy yawns. "We have the really tiring ending shots to shoot tomorrow, plus the epilogue."  
  
"I need to meditate," Raven says. "I haven't an opportunity all day."  
  
Starfire announces that she must get ready for bed and leaves the room.  
  
Soon, only Robin and Drake are alone.  
  
"I always wondered why nobody thought I was Jason Todd."  
  
"Because he dies. And he's only got two years."  
  
"So? He could easily have left six months into the job. If I were Jason Todd, he probably wouldn't die."  
  
"But would he turn into Nightwing?"  
  
"But would he use the Bo Staff?" Robin counters. He grins. "How about a little strip poker... just between the two Robins."  
  
"You're on," Tim grins back.  
  
------------------------------------------------  
  
In other news, anybody who has Winamp, and likes to play with Winamp skins, I've made a few (four; two Robin skins, a Starfire skin, and a skin of Nightwing and Starfire). Email me if you want them.  
  
And whoever makes me a fan-art of Dick Grayson in an archaic-age Gypsy costume, I'll skin that and give it to 'em as a present. 


	11. Omake: What I Censored

The censored for spoilers thing:

1. The cyborg wonders, "Why? He's," he gestures to Robin, " gotten Slade slung over the R-Cycle! !"

2. "Hit me." Cyborg says. "So, what do you think of that ending, huh? Just grabbed Slade off the R-Cycle and then left it there to stay at the wharf !"

3. "Seventeen again," he admits, revealing two aces (Spades and Hearts) and a five of Clubs. "Man, I can't believe I killed Slade! I mean, I don't have much a problem with the wrist-damge, but... !"

4. "I don't see why you find it so hard to believe." This comes from Raven, in her usual stinging monotone. "That's what happens when you don't pay attention. "

5. "Because he used excessive force and seriously damaged his enemy on purpose, Star," Tim explains. "Hit me."

6. Tim shifts in his seat, then says, "Alright, alright. I'm not working for Slade anymore ." He gives a long suffering sigh.

7. The assembled people around the table visibly relax.


	12. Chapter Nine THE END

**Hello to the Night**

**Chapter Nine**

**1**

_November 1, __12:07 AM_

Robin moved in for the kill, but soon found himself flying straight towards the singing.

_Oh god,_ he thought. _I'm going to die…_

He collided with something large, hard, and pointy. It hurt like hell, and he knew he'd have a bruise.

But the Masqueraders simply continued with their song, which had inexplicably changed from _Kung Fu Fighting_ to something he didn't recognize.

Somehow, he managed to stand, keeping his eyes closed. He gritted his teeth against the pain and noticed that the singing had increased in volume, and seemed to come from all around him.

_I must have fallen against a monument in the center of them. This is crazy… why aren't they trying to kill me" I must have knocked into one or two of them!_

The Boy Wonder concentrated. He needed to find Slade… but the Masquerade sang far, far too loud for him to make out his enemy's footsteps. Even if Slade had shouted at the top of his lungs, "I'M OVER HERE, ROBIN! COME AND GET ME PLEASE," Robin wouldn't have heard a thing.

So he crouched and pulled out the staff.

A standoff. Neither could find the other.

_12:08 AM_

Starfire whimpered at the sudden sounds of breaking glass. A tiny part of her felt amazed that she could hear the glass breaking, when that had to be on the ground floor, while she and her friends crouched at the top of Titans Tower.

The singing grew louder, closer. Lewder.

They could hear the fevered march of people towards them.

"Are we going to have to disband"" She whispered to Raven.

Raven seemed just as terrified as Starfire felt. But somehow, Raven managed to reign in her fear and use her reasoning. "It can't be all of them… it's been ten or eleven days… they have to have at least ninety people…"

Tim knelt with his face to the wall and prayed. Beast Boy had become a bat, while Cyborg tried to activate the Tower's security.

Of course, it failed.

Suddenly, the singing grew even louder.

"_We come! We come! With roll of drum!_" The Masquerade sang, sounding like a blue-grass/praise choir. "_We come! We come! With tramp of doom and stamp of gloom, we come! We come! With roll of drum!_"

Tim perked up. "Holy crap! They're trying to sing the Ents' song in _The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers_!"

"Glad to see they're all a bunch of geeks," Raven commented. The wording and tone sounded just like her normal sarcastic humor, but something seemed different. Hollow. Like she only said it to go through the motions.

_12:10 AM_

The Masquerade quieted for no apparent reason. Now they crooned something soft and haunting. "_An elven maid there was of old/ A shining star by day/ Her mantle white was hemmed with gold/ Her shoes of silver gray…_"

"Slade!" He stood and shouted into the darkness. "Tell me one thing!"

He heard something behind him and crouched. A whoosh of air passed over his head, and he waited, then grabbed Slade's legs and brought him down.

His fingers found their way to Slade's throat. He shook the villain, squeezed his fragile flesh.

"How did you know about the haunted house idea"" Robin snarled. He shifted his weight, enough to plant a knee in Slade's stomach. He put his knee on the ground and shook Slade's torso like a rag-doll. "Answer!"

"Didn't!" Came the choked-sounding response. "Was…going…to— keep— up —all— night— anyway…"

"I see." Robin growled with his teeth grit and his jaw set in a perfect imitation of Batman's.

_12:15 AM_

From the noise of the singing, Raven guessed that the Masquerade had found their way to the second floor down.

By now, the Masquerade had come so near that the words of their songs sounded indistinct. Of course, their vagueness did nothing to diminish the horrible chill that ran through her at every sound.

"Oh God, they're in the Tower," Tim prayed. "Make them go away, God. Make them go away!"

Cyborg stared up at the ceiling, having given up on the security. "Man, I just hope Robin's okay…"

Starfire held a tiny green kitten in her lap. The kitten shivered and mewed, and she idly stroked its head.

Raven watched the two and wondered just how Beast Boy physically interpreted that. Did it just feel good, or was there something else to it"

Either way, he purred loudly and Raven hoped that it wasn't a laugh.

_12:16 AM_

Robin began systematically squeezing Slade's throat, cutting off his oxygen until he had passed out. He rolled the masked man over and handcuffed him, then made sure Slade could get oxygen. He put his thumb in between Slade's right wrist and the metal ring.

The handcuffs were tight.

"Come with me," Robin grunted, slapping him awake.

Robin then rose to his feet, yanking Slade upward by the wrists. He knew it could cause nerve damage, but Slade with damaged wrists didn't sound like such a bad deal. A Slade-with-damaged-wrists probably couldn't pose half as much danger as an unharmed-Slade.

He slung the villain over the R-Cycle, made sure he couldn't move, and sped off into the endless night.

_12:20 AM_

Beast Boy sat on the floor, pointy ears twitching.

"Why did you scratch me"" Starfire hissed, casting fearful glances towards the elevator shaft.

"You were squeezing me! It hurt!" He cast fearful glances in that direction as well.

"Guys!" Cyborg's voice broke into their arguing. "I think we're going to have company pretty soon!"

_12:26 AM_

The R-Cycle slowed and skidded to a stop at the wharf.

He had no way to the island. The barricade on this end of the tunnel stood strong, and there would be an even stronger barricade at the other side, provided he could get through the first.

He looked at his cargo, assessing how long they could maintain this position. The masked man began to stir, and he bit back a curse.

Then, thinking quickly, he pulled out his T-Communicator and flipped it open, paging Raven.

"Hello"" Her voice sounded small, but otherwise, she seemed calm.

"Raven… I'm standing on the wharf, but I have no means of getting to the Tower."

She nodded. "Yeah, I see you. I'll see what I can do. And if I can't, then I hope you can swim."

"I'll only need to worry about hypothermia," he told her.

The pacific is not like the southern Atlantic, or the Gulf of Mexico— it is not a 'friendly' body of water.

It is very, very cold. Especially at night. Especially now.

_12:27 AM_

"I just heard from Robin," Raven said quietly. "He's on the wharf. I'm going to use my powers to transport him here."

"Or you could just take a portal!" Cyborg added. "It's faster and easier, and you _can_ see him from here!"

_12:28 AM_

A black spot on a brick wall appeared, and suddenly Raven jumped out. "Come with me. Bring Slade."

"But what about the R-Cycle""

"I doubt anyone living is out tonight."

Robin nodded and grabbed the unconscious mastermind. The man was heavy; Robin could barely lift him, but he managed.

_12:29 AM_

They returned to the Tower, and Robin noticed the positions of the others— Tim facing the inside of a corner, Starfire and Beast Boy warily staring at the elevator doors, and Cyborg trying to activate Tower security. Raven stood calmly beside him.

"What's going on"" Robin demanded.

"They've gone quiet…" Starfire whispered. "It always starts up louder when they go quiet… And then they get closer…"

Beast Boy trembled. "I don't want to die!"

Something caught his eye, and it took him a moment to realize what it was. He looked closely at the figure rocking himself back and forth, hugging his knees to his chest.

Robin quietly moved over to stand behind Tim. "What's wrong""

The boy shook his head but did not stop rocking. "I don't know…"

"How do I break the curse"" Robin asked.

"Can you do it"" Tim asked. "Do we have the gypsy" Because I never noticed anybody new." There was something in that tone, both biting and timid, that made Robin want to pity the boy.

"I _am_ the gypsy… The gypsy Slade used to resurrect the curse was the leader of our kumpanya."

Tim nodded. "Just before dawn, you have to face the rising sun, with the same number of people who did the curse's magic performing the counter-curse, drawing on your blood."

"What's the counter-curse"" Robin looked the younger teen in the eyes.

He stopped rocking, then furtively handed him a slip of paper. "It's on that."

"Thank you."

**2**

_12:31 AM_

Starfire's words rang true: within moments, the Masquerade grew louder. They began to bang on the elevator doors, and soon the doors collapsed.

Grotesqueries streamed into the room. Pale-limbed, decomposing, sunken-eyed, the Masqueraders danced on stubs of legs, or crawled on hands and knees. Rotted lips and dried tongues spewed horrible, croaking songs. Instead of saliva, portions of their gums, chippings of their teeth, or bits of flesh from their tongues flew from their mouths. Their movements were both stiff-jointed, discombobulated. Where a dancer may have lightly turned her ankle, a Masquerader turned its ankle to the point of dislocating it.

Terrified, Robin turned away. He didn't know how the others would cope, but he could guess: Starfire would face the wall and cover her eyes with her hands; Cyborg would shut down his cybernetic eye and face a corner. Raven would pull her hood over her face and cover her head the way they taught you to do at school during tornadoes; Beast Boy would change his head into something eyeless.

Tim would remain as he had been for some time.

And then Robin realized that Slade had been unconscious when they brought him to the Tower.

He had inadvertently caused the death of his enemy. His oversight had killed a man.

Cold, cold fingers reached out to touch his face, and he backed away. Suddenly Beast Boy's voice filled the room.

"There's only one way out of this!" The changeling cried, and then Robin heard static coming from a corner of the room.

The static soon became the voices of Evanescence, singing, _Before the Dawn_.

"We play along!"

"And then we beat a hasty retreat!" Robin stood, with his hands over his eyes. "Is that the computer Cyborg converted into a jukebox""

"Yeah," Beast Boy shouted. "At last check, we had something like eight hours of music in it!"

"Perfect!" Robin cried. "Near dawn, we have to get out of here!"

Listening to music with a bunch of dancing zombies wasn't exactly the most fun thing he'd ever done. They smelled terrible, they looked terrible, and they didn't dance very well.

So Robin sat with his eyes closed, listening to the various tunes. But instead of the lyrics, he heard the words, "Slade is dead because of you," repeated to the beat of each song.

The music pulsed in his ears and his head began to throb. The reek of the corpses filled his nose, and it made it hard to breathe. He doubted that anybody else was having a better time.

With a new, completely different song to listen to every few minutes, the Masqueraders quickly forgot about the living inhabitants of the room.

A song by Eminem began to play. The Masquerade loved it, apparently— their stomps and shouts grew in volume.

Robin opened his eyes a tiny bit, to look at Slade's body. His eyes widened a fraction when he realized that the body had begun to twitch.

Raven noticed it too; he could see those lavender eyes trained on the twitching corpse.

Robin shut his eyes lightly and turned to face the window. He would watch for the approach of dawn by measuring the amount of light he could get through his eyelids. And, of course, through the occasional surreptitious glance at the clock display on his T-Communicator.

He knelt, then turned back to glance at the only stationary corpse. It had stopped twitching, so he assumed that it must have been the dead nerve endings firing off. He'd heard they did that.

The night passed in silence, despite the shouts and music. He supposed it was something like feeling all alone in a crowded room; despite the horrendous noise, he felt as though something had drained away all the sound in the universe.

**3**

_All Saints Day, just before dawn_

He gathered the others on the roof and began the preparations.

"Okay, Titans. It's time to break this curse," he said with more bravado than he felt. "All we have to do is this: face the sunrise, draw upon my blood for power, and repeat the counter-curse."

"What is it"" Beast Boy asked.

"I'll get to that in a second. This may not work because we might not have enough people. But we might not get another chance, so we have to give it a shot now and hope for the best."

He looked at his friends, really _looking_ at them for the first time he could remember. Starfire, with her boundless energy and love of life… Raven, with her cool, chilling precision and yet wild, near feral power… Cyborg, with his strength and his fragility, his dark flesh and shining metal… Beast Boy, with his jokes and his green skin, his smile and his tired eyes. The lover, the dame knight, the father, the younger brother.

They were _his_.

"The chant is this…" He took a deep breath, "Energía por energía. Sangre por sangre. El final de siempre viene seguramente. El sol le levanta. El Masquerade muere. El Extremo se case del cielo. Las Muertes permanecen muertos."

He made sure they could all say it, and then used two bird-a-rangs to cut his arms, digging deeply, and offered them to his friends.

"_Energía por energía. Sangre por sangre. El final de siempre viene seguramente. El sol le levanta. El Masquerade muere. El Extremo se case del cielo. Las Muertes permanecen muertos_," the other Titans said as one. Two breezes rose out of nowhere at the first word, bringing in cold air from the north and dry air from the east. The wind picked up with each successive word, until it seemed almost strong enough to knock them off the Tower.

He looked at the other Titans, his blood running freely from his arms, and then stared into the sky.

"_Energía por energía. Sangre por sangre. El final de siempre viene seguramente. El sol le levanta. El Masquerade muere. El Extremo se case del cielo. Las Muertes permanecen muertos._" Their voices blended into one.

The gale from the north whipped the foam on the waves, and the gale from the east only roiled the sea more.

And the sea appeared to roil all on its own, the waters frothing and swirling viciously. Waves grew taller with each word.

Streaks of color appeared in the sky, and he stared at them.

"_Energía por energía. Sangre por sangre. El final de siempre viene seguramente. El sol le levanta. El Masquerade muere. El Extremo se case del cielo. Las Muertes permanecen muertos._" Something changed in the voices of the Titans, something he would never define.

The roiling of the sea grew worse, and he noticed that a waterspout formed near the mouth of the harbor, even though the sky had no clouds whatsoever.

"_Energía por energía. Sangre por sangre. El final de siempre viene seguramente. El sol le levanta. El Masquerade muere. El Extremo se case del cielo. Las Muertes permanecen muertos._"

At the last word, the waterspout grew even taller, the winds blew harder, and it seemed as if nature itself had become more intense… only to fade away, leaving a serene, beautiful sunrise.

They watched it, the Titans and Tim. They watched as the streaks deepened, as a disc of gold appeared.

One by one, the other Titans returned within the Tower. First Beast Boy, then Cyborg, then Starfire, then Raven.

Until Tim and Robin stood alone.

"Slade is dead," Robin said quietly.

"I figured," the younger boy told him. "Did you mean to""

"No," Robin said. "I didn't mean to."

The boy shrugged. "You gave him nothing more than what he deserved."

"I _gave_ him _nothing_," Robin snapped. "I didn't intend him to die!"

"He's no less a corpse."

They remained silent for a while, at that.

"Does this mean I can go back to my Mom and Dad now"" Tim asked.

"Yeah," Robin said, quietly.

Tim remained a little longer, and then returned within the Tower.

Dick Grayson watched the sun's light creep over the city, and when the sun had truly risen, he smiled.

It was going to be a beautiful day, and he needed not fear the night. He would never need to fear the night again.

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,  
The flying cloud, the frosty light:  
The year is dying in the night;  
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new  
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:  
The year is going, let him go;  
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind,  
For those that here we see no more;  
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,  
Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,  
And ancient forms of party strife;  
Ring in the nobler modes of life,  
With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,  
The faithless coldness of the times;  
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes,  
But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,  
The civic slander and the spite;  
Ring in the love of truth and right,  
Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease;  
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;  
Ring out the thousand wars of old,  
Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Ring in the valiant man and free,  
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;  
Ring out the darkness of the land,  
Ring in the Christ that is to be.

—ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON, _In Memoriam 106_


	13. Epilogue: Dawn Over Lea Monde

------------------------------------------------

Epilogue: Dawn Over Le Monde

------------------------------------------------

**1**

_November 3rd, __5:52 AM_

Robin silently donned a baggy sweatshirt and baggier cargo pants over a pair of black jeans and a black t-shirt. He then moved soundlessly through the halls of Titan Tower, affixing his mask even as he entered the override code to the room they'd temporarily given Tim.

The door hissed open to reveal Tim standing right in front of it.

"Are you ready to go back to Gotham?"

"Yeah."

"_Yes_," Robin corrected him. "If you're going to accept the Wayne Enterprises Scholarship and go to Gotham City Boys' Preparatory, you'd better learn to talk like a GCBP student. You get five demerits if you say the words _hey_ or _yeah_."

Tim blinked. "You're kidding, right?"

"Wrong. It's a real rule. Rules like that are why the GCBP has the thickest student handbook on the planet, and comes with annotations in a large three ring binder."

"_That_ was the joke, right?"

"No."

"Suddenly attendance doesn't sound like such a good idea."

"Because you're on scholarship, you'll have to follow all the rules. But the handbook isn't so bad. It's just wordy— as in they have fifty pages about the lower body. Those pages include what colors of pants you may wear, what color socks you may wear, why boxers are not acceptable underwear, a table that matches student height with pant leg length, and a phone directory of uniform providers."

"How many rules are there?

Robin shrugged. "I don't know. I'm not on scholarship."

"Stupid rich bastard…" The younger boy joked. They continued down the hall, to the living room, and then the kitchen. "So… what are the Titans going to do now?"

'I'm considering suggesting that the Titans go back to their old beats for a little while; two months at most…"

"And those that don't _have_ home beats?"

"They can stay here, or go home with someone who does." Robin shrugged. "Look, the plane leaves at seven. Eat quickly and make sure you call your father. It's an eight hour plane trip, in total, so he should have plenty of time to get to the airport."

"Thanks," Tim said. "Really— for the scholarship, for everything you did."

"I just wish we knew the whole story behind your kidnapping."

Tim shrugged. "Technically, it wasn't a kidnapping. Slade never actually held me anywhere, not that I remember."

"He just made your life a living hell when it didn't have to be, pushing you from place to place like you were a chess piece."

"I still don't get why he did it. I mean, how could he have used me?" Tim wondered. "What use was I, except in that whole, pointless scheme with the Mayor?"

"Aside from the fact that you know my secret identity?" Robin asked.

"Yeah, but how would he know that, without him knowing it already?"

He had a good point. It just didn't seem like Slade to invest so much time on a mostly useless teenager, and then leave him alive when he ceased being an asset.

"He must have intended to use you, before you quit," Robin realized. "He must have intended to use you in the original plan, before he learned about the haunted Tower idea…"

"And when he found out, he'd just invested too much to time in me _not_ to use me," Tim finished the thought for him. "But why did he let me live?"

Robin shrugged. "I don't know. I really don't."

.

.

.

_6:17 AM_

The other Titans rose, one by one, and entered the kitchen, where Robin leaned against a wall finishing his bowl of Special K and Tim ate a Pop Tart.

Starfire beamed, her eyes wet. "I suppose this is the day that you return to your home, Friend Timothy?"

Tim nodded. "Yep— er, yes!"

She nodded back. "Goodbye then. You have been a most excellent friend, even if you were working for Slade and know more about Friend Robin than the rest of us Titans do."

Tim beamed back. "Thanks."

"If you need anything—" Cyborg began

"—Like a little friendly competition," interjected everybody's favorite green-skinned teen.

Cyborg shot his friend a Look. "—or anything else, for that matter, you know who to call."

"Us!" Beast Boy gave his best lopsided grin.

"I know."

Raven merely looked at the younger teen. At length, she offered him her hand. "I'm sorry," she said.

"No prob. If I were you, I wouldn't have trusted me either."

Robin noticed that she didn't smile, not exactly, but her expression came close.

"We need to head the airport," Robin said quietly. "I'll be accompanying you home, just to make sure you arrive safely and that Slade's minions don't try anything on you."

"But he's dead…"

"So? He could have left instructions for the event of his death."

Tim agreed at length, and they left for the airport on the R-Cycle.

.

.

.

_7:30 AM_

Robin decided that he hated airplanes. Or, at least, he hated flying from Jump City to Saint Louis (and then to Metropolis, _then_ to Gotham). Not only did it waste his father's money (why to _Metropolis_? Why not just straight to Gotham?), but the turbulence sucked. As he had observed on his first flight from Saint Louis to Jump City. Actually, he had observed this on his flights from anywhere to Saint Louis, and from Saint Louis to anywhere else.

Apparently, planes with him on them heading for Saint Louis had very, very bad luck.

Stupid pressure fronts or whatever, he groused.

"Bored?" Tim asked.

"No." _Oh_ no. Not bored. He judged boredom by how many times he'd gone over The Rules in his head. And he hadn't even _started_ reciting The Rules yet!

Going over The Rules was a good way to remember to follow them. Of course, going over The Rules also meant mocking them.

He prided himself on being able to sit still for long hours and not do anything. Stakeouts required it, but part of his developing this skill came from his adopted father's disappointment in his natural urges to fidget. He still hadn't figured out just what it was about Bruce Wayne/Batman that made him want to please the man so badly…

But even after becoming his own vigilante, he still found himself constantly struggling to improve, just for a smile. Or an off-hand comment. Or _anything_ from the man who had become his world from the time he was eight years old.

**2**

_8:00 AM_

"Did you bring a book?" Tim muttered.

"No," Robin replied.

"Why not?"

"Plane rides are excellent opportunities for introspection."

"So? What do you have to look at inside yourself?"

"…at the things I could improve."

"Why? You're damn near perfect as it is!"

Robin looked strangely at the younger teen. The boy was staring at him, puzzled.

"You wouldn't understand," he told Tim.

"Why wouldn't I?"

"You'd have to know Batman. There's something about him…"

Tim sneered. "So you improve yourself for some guy?"

"He's not just some guy!" Robin hissed. "He… He took me in when I needed help the most! He helped me! The man wasn't my father, but he became one for me!"

"So you owe him some sort of debt or something?"

"No! I just…" Robin shook his head. "See? You don't understand. There's something in that man that makes you want to improve." The Boy Wonder sneered back. He could be cruel as well as kind, even if kind was his natural state. "And unless I vacate this post— which isn't going to happen in… oh, until Batman passes the mantle, and even if I do, _you_ wouldn't get it— you're never **_going_** to understand!"

.

.

.

_10:04 AM_

The plane finally touched down in Saint Lewis, and Robin and Tim stopped in the public restrooms before heading to the plane that flew to Atlanta.

In the restroom, Robin shucked off his baggy cargo pants and sweatshirt, revealing tighter black jeans and a black tank top. Over that, he slipped on a red, yellow, and green T-shirt modeled after the Robin costume, and then put a Gotham Knights baseball cap on backwards, after pushing his bangs into the cap.

He removed the mask and put in brown contacts, then stuffed the mask into his back pocket.

The effect, he decided, looked neither like Robin nor like Dick Grayson.

He liked it.

_Metropolis_

"Hey, wait right here," Robin said, slipping the mask back on, taking the ball cap off and the duct tape off his sneakers. "I've got to go check in with somebody. Promised the Bat."

"Right," Tim said even as the Boy Wonder pushed him next to a security guard, and Robin left.

He pushed through the crowd until at last he found the man he sought.

The man was tall and broad shouldered, with all-American good looks.

"Hey, Supes," Robin called softly.

"Yeah?" The man looked up, taking his glasses off.

"Tim and I are here, obviously."

"Where is he?" Superman asked.

"Can't tell you."

"Ah. Well, I'll let your mentor know you checked in on time."

"Thanks. Is he mad at me for not checking in with Wonder Woman in Saint Louis?"

Superman shrugged. "When it comes to you, he can be pretty good at hiding things, so I can't say… but he didn't _seem_ too angry, if that helps at all."

Robin nodded, and then returned to where he'd told Tim to be.

He'd worried that someone would kidnap the boy, but no. Tim stood next to the slightly angry looking security guard, smiling sheepishly.

"Come on. Let's catch our plane."

.

.

.

In the plane's facilities, Robin changed into the final disguise— or, rather, took them all off. The mask, the contacts, the different clothes. He became… Dick Grayson in Tight Black Jeans That Make Women Three Times His Age Stare At His Butt and a Black Wife-beater That Makes EVERYONE Stare.

Dick couldn't help but grin and wink at the various women staring at him.

He returned to his seat next to Tim and grinned wickedly. "They want me," he smirked.

"Yay for you." The perfect monotone reminded him of Raven, and he started.

"Great Raven impression," the gypsy informed the younger teen.

Tim looked at him. "Uh… thanks?"

Robin shook his head. "Gods, I can't wait to get to Gotham… Sure, it's a nasty, smoggy, crime-ridden hellhole, but it's _my _nasty, smoggy, crime-ridden hellhole, well, Batman's and my hellhole, and I've had some of the best nights of my life there."

"With girls whose names are things like Bambi and Candy?"

"More like plunging off of skyscrapers and kicking ass." Dick laughed softly. "I wouldn't try doing _that_ with Bambi and Candy."

Tim sighed. "Are you _sure_ you don't have book in there?" He indicated Dick's carry-on.

"Unless you like books on C, C, Perl, and JavaScript… no."

Tim grinned wickedly. "Know Perl, know Java, and know C. And C… I'm getting good."

Dick's eyebrows shot up. "Oh really?"

"Yeah."

"Then you can explain it to me."

.

.

.

_Gotham__Airport___

They didn't have to walk more than a few steps into the terminal for a police escort to arrive, and soon Tim Drake found himself being dragged to where his parents stood, waiting anxiously.

Dick, however, merely walked over to where Bruce and Alfred stood and hugged Bruce tightly.

**3**

_Two Weeks Later_

Dick Grayson, ward of Bruce Wayne, hurtled from the shaft connecting the terminal to the plane and directly into his foster father's arms, crying, "Bruce!"

"Dick!" Bruce replied. "It's good to have you home!"

"It's good to _be_ home," Dick replied. "Oh, Bruce… I have someone for you to meet." With that, he gestured to a redhead who had hung behind. "May I introduce you to Kory Anders?"

Starfire beamed up at Bruce Wayne and accepted the vigilante's offered hand. "I must thank you for agreeing to welcome me into your home," Starfire told him shyly.

"It's nothing," Wayne informed her. "Any friend of Dick's is welcome in Wayne Manor… especially one as beautiful as you."

The Tamaranian blushed. Dick reached out for her hand as they walked towards the baggage claim.

_No_, the Boy Wonder thought, _I will never need to fear the night again. And neither will anybody else._

…

…

Return to home  
With your head held high  
With trumpets blown  
Facing the sky.

…You took a vow in the night  
In your own blood you swore  
She'd see only the light  
And ne'er the storm

And now a red dawn rises  
Like hope from the hills  
But the night pulls like a tide  
And the shining knife it thrills

…Return to home  
With your head held high  
Your feet pound the stone  
The sun's high in the sky

The war-pipes are pealing  
The people are shouting  
The soldier is coming  
The soldier is coming...

—KATH RIETTE, from _The Soldier's Return_


	14. Alternate Epilogue: Return to Home

[[Because I love you (and I do, don't I?), I decided to give you an alternate ending. I really wanted to use this one, but then realized that there is absolutely _no_ way to write a sequel to it. So… here you go.]]

------------------------------------------------

Alternate Epilogue: Return to Home

------------------------------------------------

**1**

_November 3rd, __5:52 AM_

Robin silently donned a baggy sweatshirt and baggier cargo pants over a pair of black jeans and a black t-shirt. He then moved soundlessly through the halls of Titan Tower, affixing his mask even as he entered the override code to the room they'd temporarily given Tim.

The door hissed open to reveal Tim standing right in front of it.

"Are you ready to go back to Gotham?"

"Yeah."

"_Yes_," Robin corrected him. "If you're going to accept the Wayne Enterprises Scholarship and go to Gotham City Boys' Preparatory, you'd better learn to talk like a GCBP student. You get five demerits if you say the words _hey_ or _yeah_."

Tim blinked. "You're kidding, right?"

"Wrong. It's a real rule. Rules like that are why the GCBP has the thickest student handbook on the planet, and comes with annotations in a large three ring binder."

"_That_ was the joke, right?"

"No."

"Suddenly attendance doesn't sound like such a good idea."

"Because you're on scholarship, you'll have to follow all the rules. But the handbook isn't so bad. It's just wordy— as in, they have fifty pages about the lower body. Those pages include what colors of pants you may wear, what color socks you may wear, why boxers are not acceptable underwear, a table that matches student height with pant leg length, and a phone directory of uniform providers."

"How many rules are there?

Robin shrugged. "I don't know. I'm not on scholarship."

"Stupid rich bastard…" The younger boy joked. They continued down the hall, to the living room, and then the kitchen. "So… what are the Titans going to do now?"

'I'm considering suggesting that the Titans go back to their old beats for a little while; two months at most…"

"And those that don't _have_ home beats?"

"They can stay here, or go home with someone who does." Robin shrugged. "Look, the plane leaves at seven. Eat quickly and make sure you call your father. It's an eight hour plane trip, in total, so he should have plenty of time to get to the airport."

"Thanks," Tim said. "Really— for the scholarship, for everything you did."

"I just wish we knew the whole story behind your kidnapping."

Tim shrugged. "Technically, it wasn't a kidnapping. Slade never actually held me anywhere, not that I remember."

"He just made your life a living hell when it didn't have to be, pushing you from place to place like you were a chess piece."

"I still don't get why he did it. I mean, how could he have used me?" Tim wondered. "What use was I, except in that whole, pointless scheme with the Mayor?"

"Aside from the fact that you know my secret identity?" Robin asked.

"Yeah, but how would he know that, without him knowing it already?"

He had a good point. It just didn't seem like Slade to invest so much time on a mostly useless teenager, and then leave him alive when he ceased being an asset.

"He must have intended to use you, before you quit," Robin realized. "He must have intended to use you in the original plan, before he learned about the haunted Tower idea…"

"And when he found out, he'd just invested too much to time in me _not_ to use me," Tim finished the thought for him. "But why did he let me live?"

Robin shrugged. "I don't know. I really don't."

.

.

.

_6:17 AM_

The other Titans rose, one by one, and entered the kitchen, where Robin leaned against a wall finishing his bowl of Special K and Tim ate a Pop Tart.

Starfire beamed, her eyes wet. "I suppose this is the day that you return to your home, Friend Timothy?"

Tim nodded. "Yep— er, yes!"

She nodded back. "Goodbye then. You have been a most excellent friend, even if you were working for Slade and know more about Friend Robin than the rest of us Titans do."

Tim beamed back. "Thanks."

"If you need anything—" Cyborg began

"—Like a little friendly competition," interjected everybody's favorite green-skinned teen.

Cyborg shot his friend a Look. "—or anything else, for that matter, you know who to call."

"Us!" Beast Boy gave his best lopsided grin.

"I know."

Raven merely looked at the younger teen. At length, she offered him her hand. "I'm sorry," she said.

"No prob. If I were you, I wouldn't have trusted me either."

Robin noticed that she didn't smile, not exactly, but her expression came close.

"We need to head the airport," Robin said quietly. "I'll be accompanying you home, just to make sure you arrive safely and that Slade's minions don't try anything on you."

"But he's dead…"

"So? He could have left instructions for the event of his death."

Tim agreed at length, and they left for the airport on the R-Cycle.

.

.

.

_7:30 AM_

Robin decided that he hated airplanes. Or, at least, he hated flying from Jump City to Saint Louis (and then to Metropolis, _then_ to Gotham). Not only did it waste his father's money (why to _Metropolis_? Why not just straight to Gotham?), but the turbulence sucked. As he had observed on his first flight from Saint Louis to Jump City. Actually, he had observed this on his flights from anywhere to Saint Louis, and from Saint Louis to anywhere else.

Apparently, planes with him on them heading for Saint Louis had very, very bad luck.

Stupid pressure fronts or whatever, he groused.

"Bored?" Tim asked.

"No." _Oh_ no. Not bored. He judged boredom by how many times he'd gone over The Rules in his head. And he hadn't even _started_ reciting The Rules yet!

Going over The Rules was a good way to remember to follow them. Of course, going over The Rules also meant mocking them.

He prided himself on being able to sit still for long hours and not do anything. Stakeouts required it, but part of his developing this skill came from his adopted father's disappointment in his natural urges to fidget. He still hadn't figured out just what it was about Bruce Wayne/Batman that made him want to please the man so badly…

But even after becoming his own vigilante, he still found himself constantly struggling to improve, just for a smile. Or an off-hand comment. Or _anything_ from the man who had become his world from the time he was eight years old.

**2**

_8:00 AM_

"Did you bring a book?" Tim muttered.

"No," Robin replied.

"Why not?"

"Plane rides are excellent opportunities for introspection."

"So? What do you have to look at inside yourself?"

"…at the things I could improve."

"Why? You're damn near perfect as it is!"

Robin looked strangely at the younger teen. The boy was staring at him, puzzled.

"You wouldn't understand," he told Tim.

"Why wouldn't I?"

"You'd have to know Batman. There's something about him…"

Tim sneered. "So you improve yourself for some guy?"

"He's not just some guy!" Robin hissed. "He… He took me in when I needed help the most! He helped me! The man wasn't my father, but he became one for me!"

"So you owe him some sort of debt or something?"

"No! I just…" Robin shook his head. "See? You don't understand. There's something in that man that makes you want to improve." The Boy Wonder sneered back. He could be cruel as well as kind, even if kind was his natural state. "And unless I vacate this post— which isn't going to happen in… oh, until Batman passes the mantle, and even if I do, _you_ wouldn't get it— you're never **_going_** to understand!"

.

.

.

_10:04 AM_

The plane finally touched down in Saint Lewis, and Robin and Tim stopped in the public restrooms before heading to the plane that flew to Atlanta.

In the restroom, Robin shucked off his baggy cargo pants and sweatshirt, revealing tighter black jeans and a black tank top. Over that, he slipped on a red, yellow, and green T-shirt modeled after the Robin costume, and then put a Gotham Knights baseball cap on backwards, after pushing his bangs into the cap.

He removed the mask and put in brown contacts, then stuffed the mask into his back pocket.

The effect, he decided, looked neither like Robin nor like Dick Grayson.

He liked it.

**3**

_Metropolis_

"Hey, wait right here," Robin said, slipping the mask back on, taking the ball cap off and the duct tape off his sneakers. "I've got to go check in with somebody. Promised the Bat."

"Right," Tim said even as the Boy Wonder pushed him next to a security guard, and Robin left.

He pushed through the crowd until at last he found the man he sought.

The man was tall and broad shouldered, with all-American good looks.

"Hey, Supes," Robin called softly.

"Yeah?" The man looked up, taking his glasses off.

"Tim and I are here, obviously."

"Where is he?" Superman asked.

"Can't tell you."

"Ah. Well, I'll let your mentor know you checked in on time."

"Thanks. Is he mad at me for not checking in with Wonder Woman in Saint Louis?"

Superman shrugged. "When it comes to you, he can be pretty good at hiding things, so I can't say… but he didn't _seem_ too angry, if that helps at all."

Robin nodded, and then returned to where he'd told Tim to be.

He'd worried that someone would kidnap the boy, but no. Tim stood next to the slightly angry looking security guard.

"I need to head to the restroom," Tim told him.

Robin shrugged. "Okay, then. I'll follow you in and make sure nobody tries to kill you."

So they headed to the bathroom.

Tim looked around to make sure nobody was in there, and then faced Robin. He wore an odd expression on his face. "Robin… there's something I need to tell you…"

"Yes?"

The odd expression became a wicked smile. "Your friends are dead."

Robin felt his jaw drop. "What are you talking about? How?

"I planted six bombs in Titan Tower. They detonated about an hour ago."

"WHAT?! WHY?" The Titans were dead. The Titans were dead because he had trusted the bastard.

He should have known. He should have _known_, fuck it all!

"I'm Slade. I tossed Tim Drake into the Jump City Harbor with a nice pair of concrete boots eight hours before you let him join you." The wicked smile vanished. "This all ends now, Robin. I know about your mentor and I don't like it. If you won't be my apprentice, you won't play the apprentice to anyone else. I tire of toying with you."

Robin found himself literally staring down the barrel of a loaded gun. It didn't really matter. He had failed. The Titans were dead.

"Goodbye."

The gun went off.

…

…

Don't turn your back on me baby  
Don't turn your back on me baby  
Yes, don't turn your back on me baby  
You're messin' around with your tricks  
Don't turn your back on me baby  
'Cause you might just break up my magic stick

—FLEETWOOD MAC, _Black Magic Woman_


End file.
